A changeling's visit to Skyrim

“And then the big orc was all ‘Rawr!’ and he lifted his axe over his head about to cleave them in two, but then these spears made of solid fire impaled him, one after another and Stross was all like ‘No one hurts my friends.’ And then he cut the orc’s head off with a flaming sword of fire and death and it was so awesome!”

The companions had gathered around in the mead hall, actually listening to Erik for once as he excitedly told of the battle.

“Then once they helped me out from under all the dead cultists- Which I killed all by myself by the way! -We all victoriously dragged our battered bodies back, and now we’re here.” he finished to a round of applause.

“That’s nothing.” Farkas commented “Skjor and Kodlak fought a flock of rabid chickens from Hyrule and lived to tell the tale.”

As boasting and arguing broke out across the hall and quickly turned to brawling, Skjor was busy coughing up payment to one of the battered heroes.

“Well it sounds like the problem was much worse than we’d assumed. Luckily you all managed to deal with it. The reward was originally two-hundred gold. But all things considered… we went ahead and doubled it.” Skjor took out a bag of coins and handed it to Fenora “For your trouble.”

“Thanks, it’s really because of Stross that we all got out of there in one piece.” She gave a hollow laugh as she pocketed the coin, thinking of a way to repay him for saving her bacon yet again.

“Speaking of which, the people you rescued during your raid wanted to offer their thanks as well and said to give you those.” Skjor pointed to a pair of large bags sitting near the door.

Inside were small amounts of septims, a couple pelts, and some cooked foods; Sweetrolls, baked potatoes, salted meats and the such. On top was a small note that read: “Thanks for saving us from those maniacs, and not letting us die from getting repeatedly kicked in the balls. We owe you big time.”

Fenora smiled. It was an awkward smile, but a genuine one. She carefully shoved the note into her pocket, picked up the bags, and left to share the good news with the others... after she sold off all the loot that Erik didn't bother to take.

A few hours later it was another sunny mid-morning when the door to Breezehome was once again kicked open and knocked off its hinges by its newest owner.

“I’m home!” she called as she set the bags down on the nearest unoccupied shelf “How’s everyone doing?”

Suddenly there was a crash and a tumbling of wood splinters as a portion of the already decimated ceiling exploded.

“Fen!” Stross yelled as he poked his head through the most recently added hole in the second floor “Get up here now! Luna’s not getting any better, you gotta help!”

Shaking off her surprise, Fenora quickly made her way up the stairs where she found Luna laying exhausted under the covers of the bed, barely able to move. She walked over to the bedside and placed her hand on Luna’s forehead, trying to find any abnormal temperature. Though instead of burning up like she expected, Luna’s skin was clammy and freezing cold.

“She been like this ever since we got back and I don’t know what to do! I tried healing potions, magika potions, hot soup; nothing seems to make her any better! And Laelette went off to seek help from some ancient order of vampires of something.” Stross said in hysterics as he shook Fenora like a snow globe “What are we gonna do? WHAT are we going to do?!”

Fenora clenched his head in her hands, slapped him, and looked him dead in the eyes. “Stross, calm down.” she released him once he complied “Now tell me what’s wrong. What happened?”

Stross took a deep breath and began to explain. “Okay, it all started around the time we got back…

*Flashback* *screen ripple* *harp strum* *finding out what happened… yeah*

A group of three people slowly approached the Whiterun gates in the fading darkness of night as sunlight slowly crept into view over the horizon. On the left was an elf with silver hair using a broadsword as a walking stick, to the far right was a woman with blue wings and a clashing green outfit, and in the center of them was a scale-skinned creature with sky-blue eyes; each of them was leaning on the other for support as they trudged along. Far proceeding them was a young adventurer with shiny leggings, who was holding open the gate.

“Finally made it.” huffed the elf “You two head home and rest, I’ll head to Jorrvaskr and tell them we’ve dealt with their cultist problem. ‘Rabble of bandits’ indeed.” she muttered sarcastically as she walked off.

Stross waved goodbye and turned to Princess Luna, who had practically glommed onto him to stop from falling over. “You doing alright? Nothing severely injured? No homicidal thoughts towards me?”

“We are managing just fine.” she answered, attempting to stand up on her own power as they continued towards Breezehome “Though I fail to see why we couldn’t have just left all that junk behind and collected it tomorrow, it’s not like it would have disappeared.”

Stross nodded with a sigh remembering all the loot Fenora had stripped of the cultist’s bodies and dragged with her as they made their way back, and how significantly it slowed their pace as she strained to walk under the weight. “Well… yeah. But I guess we do need the money for… things… and stuff.”

“But who in their right minds would purchase those blood-soaked robes and ritual knives?” Luna asked.

“The merchants in Skyrim are weird.” Stross told Luna as he opened the door and helped her inside “They’ll buy anything, all day, every day.”

“Oh, so the merchants here are from the griffon kingdom?” Luna gave a hearty laugh, but soon realized that Stross hadn’t joined her and was merely giving a quizzical stare. “Oh, I suppose that is what would be called an… inside joke?”

“Ahem, regardless,” Luna quickly straitened herself up “I would also like to inform thee that in the interest of saving an entire world from destruction, there shall be no further hostilities towards thee on our part. And…” Luna averted her gaze, a sheepish look on her face “we wanted to apologize once more for our previous aggression. Thou hast shown thine intent to be noble, and we hope you can forgive us.”

Luna looked up to see Stross giving her a warm smile and holding out his hand, which she gladly shook as a sign of agreement.

“And I’m sorry for freaking out, faking my own death and trying to plot your fiery downfall while you thought I was dead.”

“What?” Luna blinked.

“Nothing!” Stross said quickly as their hands parted “It doesn’t matter now. As long as you’re here to help, I’m sure we’ll come to like each other. You’ll see, not all changelings are evil.

“Perhaps we shall, thank you for giving us this chance. We promise thus forth that thee… that thee shan’t regret… allowing us to…” Luna trailed off, remembering that she was late for an important meeting between her face and the floor.

*End flashback**Oh that ain't good*

“And then she just fell face first on the floor! I’ve been trying everything ever since!” Stross finished, his panic having returned. “I swear I had nothing to do with this!”

“I am alright… really.” came a very weak and groggy voice.

The two of them turned to see Luna trying to sit herself up, her skin was pale and covered in sweat and there were dark bags under her bloodshot eyes. “I’m just tired, that’s all.” she told them unconvincingly.

“Are you sure about that? You look a little sick.” Fenora walked to her side, Stross following closely behind “Actually, scratch that. You look really sick.”

“Nonsence, we have never felt-“ Luna stopped mid-sentence to heave the contents of her stomach into a nearby urn “Ugh… better.”

Fenora just stared at her for a second. “That settles it.” she said “We’re taking you to the doctor’s.”

“No please! Not the doctor’s!” Luna continued to protest as Fenora carried her through the streets of Whiterun towards the temple of Kynareth.

“Technically they’re priests.” Stross corrected as he followed behind with a box of tissues and ice packs “Skyrim doesn’t have ‘doctors’ per say, so they make do with divine magic and mumbo jumbo from the local priests.”

“That doesn’t make it any better!” Luna yelled, still trying to wiggle free from her blanket cocoon. “I tell thee that doctors are evil!” she recalled horrible memories of needles, cold metal and old magazines.

They finally arrived at the great wooden doors of the temple and Stross knocked on the door. Within a few seconds, one of the priests answered and welcomed them inside.

“Hello there, my name is Danica Pure-spring. I had to change my name so I could apply for another medical license. How may I harm you today?”

“Umm… don’t you mean ‘help’?” Stross asked.

“Not sure, but you know what they say about the healing process. You’ll always get worse before you get better.” Danica sing-songed the inspirational quote “And if that’s true, then my last patients are going to be great when they stop being dea- I mean… sleeping. Yes… sleeping in a deep, coma-like healing sleep.”

Luna shivered in her cocoon as Fenora and Stross looked between one another unsurely.

“Well… our friend Luna is sick, and we don’t know what’s wrong.” Fenora said slowly “We were hoping you could help… But maybe we shouldn’t bother-”

“Nonsense! Of course I can help! Come on in!” Danica exclaimed happily as she snatched Luna from them and brought them into large room inside.

The room was just inside the entrance. Bookshelves and small tables scarcely decorated the edges of the room, while the middle of the floor was bare, and illuminated by the skylight. On the walls of the room were banners to the goddess Kynareth, with two more hung above the shrine in the northern corner. Otherwise, there was nothing too remarkable save for a couple of comfy beds made of solid stone. You know, the perfect thing for the wounded and sick to lay on while they recovered from debilitating injuries. Luna was reluctantly sat down on one of these, the blanket doing little to cushion her.

“Dragonborn. Are you sure we can trust this woman? She does not seem… professional.” Luna said as Danica dragged an old chest out from under a secret compartment in the floor.

“Uh, don’t worry... I’m sure she’s fine... yeah.” Fenora reassured Luna for the sake of her mind alone. She then quickly turned to Stross and said in a whisper “If anything goes wrong grab the princess and run.” To which Stross gave a quick nod before Danica came back to them.

“Alrighty then, what seems to be the problem?” Danica asked as she took out a stethoscope and began listening to Luna’s forehead with it.

“I feel terrible.” Luna groaned.

“Symptoms?”

“Well… I’m sweating all the time, and I feel weak, I have a splitting headache, and there’s this tingling in my stomach that won’t go away.” Luna listed off what she could.

“Right then, none of that matters, ‘cause I already know the solution!” Danica proclaimed and rummaged through her trunk, standing up as she fished out a glass jar. “Leeches!”

“What!” screamed our three heroes when they saw that Danica was not joking in the slightest and within the glass jar were several of the slimy blood-suckers squirming around.

“Beg your pardon, but doesn’t that seem a bit… dated?” Luna asked, knowing such methods were being done away with in Equestria even before her thousand year exile.

“Yeah! They’ve been used as a cure-all remedy all across Tamriel since the first age, so you know they must’ve been doing something right to have stuck around this long. Now if you’ll just hold out your arms, legs, neck and any other exposed flesh, these little guys will do the rest.”

Danica opened her eyes to see all that remained of her patient and her friends was a dispersing trail of dust.

“Oh well.” She shrugged “At least I got their fifteen septim co-pay.”

On the other side of Whiterun, Fenora and Stross gently placed Luna atop a small stack of crates, apologizing profusely to her through gasps for breath.

“I have to say that was not one of our finer moments.” Stross said. “Who knew priests were so scary, aren’t they supposed to be trained in that sort of medical stuff?”

“You’re telling me.” Fenora agreed with him “Are you alright Princess?”

Luna responded with a Royal-Canterlot-sneeze that shook the thatching from every rooftop in the city. “Not really.” she said glumly as they picked themselves off the ground.

“Well, time for plan B.” Fenora sighed.

“Dragonborn. We do not approve of this ‘plan B’.” Luna said, anxiously backing away from the pot of bubbling liquid in front of her.

“It’s alright, Arcadia best potion-maker in Whiterun. She’ll be able to help.” Fenora told her, leaving out the part where she’s the only potion-maker in Whiterun. Fenora didn’t especially like Arcadia after the way she reacted to Stross upon their first meeting; the fact that Stross himself decided to stay outside showed that he felt the same. But if the alchemist really did ‘have a remedy for any ailment’ then it was worth a shot to ask her for help.

“You bet I can cure her, or your money back.” Arcadia joked, which did nothing to help the mood. “Alright… a few more ground bear claws, some egg yolks… and one more dash of void salts. Alright, here you go.” She finished stirring the ingredients in and handed the slush to Luna.

“Are you sure about this?” she asked as she let the viscous mixture swirl in its bowl a bit.

“Well… not really to be honest, but it’s not like it’ll make you worse right?” Fenora reasoned.

Luna looked back at Arcadia, who urged her with a gesture and a winning smile. The night princess shrugged and gulped the potion down in two swift gulps, surprised at its rather pleasant taste.

Fanora and Arcadia looked to her expectedly. “So? How do you feel?”

Luna took a deep breath and raised a hand as though beginning a speech. And then projectile vomited the contents of her stomach onto the nearest wall, curling back up into a shivering ball once it was all out.

Fenora knelt down beside Luna and gently rubbed her back. “Okay, maybe I’m not so good at helping sick people.” She admitted the obvious.

Luna gave her a glare that said “Oh really? You think?”

Fenora sighed again. “If only we knew what was wrong, maybe we could actually help. Who else could we go to?”

Then Mr. Someone-else-to-go-to angrily kicked in the door and glared at Arcadia through his spectacles. “Arcadia, I hope you know that my personal presence in your shop is enough to show that I’ve truly had enough of your childish games.” Farengar said with barely restrained anger “I can respect one’s study of the alchemical practice. But this is my fourth meal in a row that you’ve slipped one of your experimental potions into, and I must demand that you cease and desist!”

“Oh Farengar, where’s your sense of humor?” Arcadia laughed.

“It went into the trash this morning, along with most of my personal collection of tomes after the effects of your fire-breathing potion finally wore off.” Farengar told her “I’m not much for metaphors, but I’ve had it up to here with you.”

“You realize she’s doing it because she likes you, right?” Stross chimed in from the open doorway “Arcadia does not care about your lack of interest in her what-so-ever. The more you ignore her the more she wants you. And she will continue to use various methods of provocation in order to get your attention until you agree to sate her desires through a romantic evening and subsequent vigorous banging!”

With that, the changeling whooshed away as quickly as he appeared, leaving a rather uncomfortable and awkward silence in his wake, with only the odd cough to break it.

“Well… umm.” Farengar quickly looked for something else to draw everyone’s attention with. “Oh! What do we have here? You certainly look unwell.” He said, choosing Luna as his means of escape “Looks to be a magical affliction. Perhaps you need my assistance somewhere that’s not here? Yes? Okay then, off we go. Grab her and follow me.” he ordered Fenora and walked out of the shop as though it were going to explode any second.

“This is why I don’t leave my room.” he muttered as the four of them made their way up to Dragonsreach.

Luna sat atop the large wooden table in Farengar’s personal lab/study room. The Court Wizard was currently in his element, observing her from all sides and gleefully taking measurements and scribbling down notes.

“Well, after that unpleasant bit of social interaction, I’m pleased to be dealing with something that is clearly in my field of study.” Farengar said happily as he examined Princess Luna with a number of different tools and plucking a few feathers for later use, to which she was none too happy about.

“So do you think you can figure out what’s wrong?” Fenora asked as she sat in a chair in the corner.

Farengar laughed a bit. “I’m honestly surprised you did not bring her to me in the first place. With my superior intellect, I’ll surely discover a solution to this conundrum in a much more timely manner than any of those other bumbling amateurs.” He boasted “And besides, the chance to study yet another being from a different world will be quite a marvelous experience. Perhaps this one will even be worth my time.”

“Hey!” Stross cut in “I am offended, sir.”

“Whatever. Me no speaka da egghead. Translation please.” Fenora requested.

There was a whirl of flame as Stross took Farengar’s form. “I’m a super smarty-pants. I’ll figure this out way faster than Arcadia or that crazy priest. Plus I’ll get to prod Luna with my fancy toys and scribble down a bunch of notes.” Stross said in a derpy impression of the Court Wizard, earning some stifled laughter from Fenora. “Boy I sure love books; they don’t talk back to me or question my theories. I wish I had some clones so that I can share my ramblings about dragons- Kack! Ow!”

Stoss was interrupted and torn from his disguise when a book impacted his face.

“You know, if you’re going to take my form for a comedy routine, you should learn how to properly dodge incoming projectiles.” Farengar lisped with a smirk and threw another heavy object at the downed changeling “Now hand me that bowl of bone meal.”

Stross complied while rubbing his aching head.

“Pardon me, Court Wizard.” Luna said weakly “Does’t thou expect us to eat that?”

“What, no. Of course not.” Farengar said as he mixed a few other reagents into the powdered bone “Unless of course, you wish to. In which case, your species has very strange customs and/or tastes. Now then...”

Farengar took a fistful of the mixture in his hand and walked to an open surface on the floor. He carefully let the dust fall out of his hand, drawing a circle with it on the floor.

“Alright you highness, if you would be so kind as to step into the circle.”

With a bit of difficulty, Luna got up and stood within the powder circle. Farengar picked up a flask from the table and uncorked it. He then knelt down, and with an eyedropper, he let a single drop of liquid onto the powder.

The powder lit up brightly, and in an instant it ignited in a bright blue flame, a pillar of light encompassing the area within. In a few moments it died down, leaving a lingering blue aura on the Princess, which she curiously looked over.

“I get it now.” Stross said before transforming into Farengar again “That magic effect from the circle allows us to view the normally invisible magical energies within her. Judging by how weak the glow is, there’s barely any power left in her.  Since she is a magical being, it would only make sense that she is weaker in the absence of such power, to the point of sickness even.”

Fenrengar gave Stross a pat on the back. “Now that’s how you do a proper impression of an esteemed Court Wizard.”

“But I do not understand.” Luna said to them as she looked at the fading blue light around her “Why am I so weak all of a sudden?”

“I believe it is time to put my next theory in motion.” Farengar handed her a blue vial of liquid “Drink this please.”

Luna paused and stared at him a moment.

“Well go on.” Farengar said impatiently.

Reluctantly, Luna took a cautious sip. She immediately felt a boost of energy and proceeded to down the rest of it, the aura around her glowing visibly brighter as she did.

“It is just as I theorized.” Farengar told them “That was a magika potion I gave you just now, it seems your body were nearly depleted.”

“Magika? But the changeling gave us many of those in an attempt to revive us, just this morning.” Luna told them “We could not possibly be depleted after such a short… time… gahh, my head.”

The aura of light began quickly fading, the magic within her being pulled inward and vanishing into nothingness. As it did, it became apparent that Luna’s state of health was directly related to how much magika she had left. First her hair stopped flowing, going from an ethereal body of stars to regular strands which cascaded limply down her form, their length ending just above her ankles. Then her skin became pale and she started to sweat once again as the glow around her faded almost entirely.

“Well this is quite an unusual phenomenon.” Farengar observed and continued to jot down notes “It seems as though something is eating away any magika that comes into her system.”

“It’s not me! I don’t do that kind of thing anymore.” Stross quickly defended himself while he fed Luna another potion, the effects fading as quickly as the first. “I promise!”

“We believe you.” Fenora got up from her seat in order to help her remain standing. “But then how do we help her? She can’t fight dragons with us if she’s too weak to stand.”

“I vote we find and remove whatever parasite is draining our magic.” Luna managed to say before the effects of the second potion wore off and she once again flopped onto her companions.

“Farengar? Any ideas?” they looked to him.

Ferengar lit up with a grin and grabbed a few black scrolls.

“Well, my knowledge is much more limited then I would like.” He began “But I believe that with some diligent testing over the course of a few weeks-“

“No.” Fenora cut him off “That’s just too long to wait.”

“But Dragonborn, think about this.” Farengar pleaded “Before us is a being from another world; one that isn’t annoying to the point of breaking my sanity.” He added as Stross tried to interject “While I figure out why her magic is draining at such an unusual rate, I can also write enough notes to fill entire books on what her species is like. Think of it, it will be the biggest discovery since the dragons returning! I could-”

“Farengar.” Fenora interrupted him again “I’m happy for you. I’m gonna let you finish… your research. But Luna is a living person who is sick and needs our help. A few weeks is just too long to wait for results. And for all we know, Alduin will have burned Tamriel to the ground by then.”

“I- But this-“ Farengar tried to form a sentence, urging them to reconsider.

“Court Wizard.” Luna said, now at his side with her hand on his shoulder “We would be happy to assist you with your studies, and we shall personally tell you all about Equestria when we have recovered. But first we require your help.” she told him weakly, her skin saturated with a cold sweat and her eyes bloodshot again.

Farengar was unusually silent as he looked back at Luna through his glasses. “Okay” he said with a sigh and went over to a mostly vacant bookshelf. He grabbed a couple of the books that were still intact and returned to the three. He put the books on the table and opened up one, which happened to be full of maps.

“As much as I hate to admit it, I wouldn’t even know where to begin with treating your illness, your majesty. And since a quicker recovery would be preferable to you, there’s only one other place I could think to recommend to you.” He pointed to a spot on the north-eastern-most part of Skryim “The Mages’ College of Winterhold.”

Farengar paused and let the room go silent for dramatic effect.

“It is a collection of the best and most experienced magical minds in all of Skyrim… although that’s not saying much.” he continued “I hear that they often deal with odd occurrences of the magical nature. Mind you, most of those odd occurrences are caused by them, but you should find someone there to help solve this riddle once and for all.”

“Then that’s where we’re headed. Thank you Farengar.” Fenroa said as she and the others headed for the exit.

“I wish you luck!” he called to them as they left “And Princess Luna, don’t forget I’ll be waiting to hear all about your world… and take a few blood samples!”