Twilight Sparkle the Adventurer

Chapter 9 – Journey to Bleak Falls Barrow

Twilight woke up with Lucia in her arms once again and smiled at the marvel that was taking care of someone who needed it badly. Somehow, she managed to untangle herself without waking the child up this time and proceeded to go downstairs to speak to Hulda.

Twilight cleared her throat. “I would like to rent the room again tonight for Lucia to enjoy in my absence. I will be leaving Whiterun today on business, but I should be back soon.”

Hulda accepted Twilight’s gold. “I wish I could allow you to rent the room for more than one night, but I do have polices and standards to uphold.”

Twilight tilted her head. “I’m afraid I don’t understand the logic of that.”

Hulda shook her head sadly. “I only have 3 rooms to rent out daily. I can’t take the gold for say… seven days in advance to hold a room for an adventurer while another adventurer is sitting out in the cold with nowhere to go when the original adventurer that rented the room could be dead in a cave or a ruin somewhere. Equally not fair for the adventurer to have a room paid for and held for them if they end up having to rent a room in a different town if they weren’t able to make it back to Whiterun. Riverwood and Rorikstead both have Inns as well and they both fall within the territory of Whiterun hold. Any job you take within the Hold could send you to far reaching places. You can’t count on making it back here every night and it’s wise to save your gold in case anything comes up.”

Twilight pursed her lips. “But… I’d be paying on behalf of the child. Surely you could take my gold to rent the room for her for more than one day in advance? I’m not taking her with me to an Ancient Nordic Ruin and while I haven’t officially adopted her… she is a resident of Whiterun, and I’d like to see her safe while I’m gone.”

Hulda could see the bigger picture. “Your heart is in the right place, lass. Tell me this… how much food have you left her with?”

Twilight considered the question from the standpoint of it being a test of some kind… in the end it didn’t really matter… Twilight knew the truth was best in this situation.

“That depends on her… She has five servings of mammoth stew from the most recent batch I cooked last night. If she eats properly, it’ll last two days… if she stretches it by eating one serving a day… it’ll last five days. She, herself, admitted that it’s better to be a little hungry by stretching it rather than eating it too fast and then going hungry later. Why do you ask?”

Hulda took a serious stance. “I’ve heard the story of how her Aunt and Uncle threw her out of her parents old farm. It’s horrible and it honestly shouldn’t have happened, but given her orphan status, her extended family didn’t technically break the law even if it was morally reprehensible. Even if a crime was committed… the Jarl simply doesn’t have enough guards to police the entire Hold. As I understand the law on inheritance of property… she can’t take legal possession of her parent’s farm until she’s 16, and even then as a woman, preferably not until she’s married. That may be a matter for her to consider later. The only boy in town her age is Lars Battleborn and I doubt Olfrid Battleborn would let one of his heirs marry an orphan.

Her entire situation and misfortune notwithstanding, she made it to town safely, by some miracle, and now that she’s in town she should be safe… however I can’t allow a child without food to stay in the Inn. And I can’t allow her to ‘stretch her meals’ to make those meals that she does have last longer, given that it would look bad on me as the owner and hostess of the Inn. And I, also, can’t adopt her. I’m a little too old to commit to raising a child and I can’t afford to convert one of the rooms I rent into a permanent room for her. That being said… I can allow you to rent the room for two days… covering the length of time of the meals you have provided her. If you’re not back in three days when she runs out of food… she’ll have to pay for her own meals and the cost of the room… if she’s able.”

Twilight paid an additional 10 gold. “I gave her a little bit of gold also. Hopefully I’ll be back faster than three days.”

Hulda nodded. “The Jarl doesn’t hire adventurers often, so I’d wager it is a dangerous request. Oh, um, did you want to take the newest job posting with you as well?”

Twilight sighed. “I guess I should take a look at it given that I’ll need to earn a lot more gold if I ever want to buy a house here. It’s obvious that Lucia needs a home and no one else is going to try to provide her with one.”

Hulda pulled out the newest wanted poster. “Here you go. This one is for the bandits of Silent Moon Camp. Good luck and may the Gods watch over your battles.”

Twilight placed the wanted poster in her backpack and risked asking another question. “I received some Alchemy training from Arcadia recently and I would like more training before I level up again, but I don’t have the justification or the gold to get more of the same training. Are there any other skill trainers in town?”

Hulda had to consider the question. “Eorlund Grey-Mane is a Master Blacksmith, but he tends to only offer smithing training to members of the Companions Warrior Guild. Warriors do have to care for their weapons and armor, so it does make sense, after a fashion. Nobody knows why he doesn’t offer the training to other people… Gods know that the Grey-Mane family could use the extra gold. Separately, Danica Pure-Spring is a Master Restoration trainer and the Chief Priestess of the Temple of Kynareth. From what I hear… she could use some help from a mage with a decent mana pool if you wanted to try to see if you could lend a hand…”

Twilight left the Inn with a renewed sense of purpose accompanied by a shadowed sense of dread. Now she had a time limit on top of everything else… but she couldn’t let Lucia down…

Three days…

Despite the new and unexpected time limit, Hulda’s suggestion to go to the Temple of Kynareth was interesting enough to peak Twilight’s interest. She really wanted whatever training she could get before she left Whiterun.

Walking into the temple wasn’t quite the scene Twilight had envisioned. The temple itself was almost plain. While the wood pillars had intricate cravings and such, there wasn’t any gold or silver decorations that she felt would be normal in a temple such as this. The walls were lined with storage cabinets that seemed to hold very ordinary household items that seemed a little out of place in the Temple, unless of course, the Chief Priestess slept in the Temple itself… which actually seemed to be the case. Not much different than Twilight sleeping in a library, actually.

The actual Shrine of Kynareth itself was very small against the far wall. The whole thing was rather humble. Of course, with Kynareth being a Goddess of Nature, perhaps that was the point. The Temple was ‘earthy.’ Applejack would have approved.

The most startling thing about the temple was that there were four sick or injured townsfolk on tables around the room A few men, who seemed to be acolytes, appeared to be milling around the room, either attempting to heal the injured or sitting down and eating while resting.

The Chief Priestess was standing in the middle of the room, seemingly praying with her arms stretched towards the ceiling of the room. She was bathed in a warm light coming in from a well-placed window that gave her an other-earthly presence. If it was meant to grant her a divine appearance, then it worked. She turned to face Twilight.

“Hello, Child of Kynareth. What brings you here today?”

Twilight cleared her throat, suddenly a little nervous.

Why does she have a Celestia-like aura?

“Hulda told me that you needed a mage with a large mana pool to help you. I was hoping to see if I could be of help?”

Danica nodded and walked Twilight over to a table that held a badly injured soldier. “This soldier was hurt fighting a spriggan. Spriggan magic makes it hard to heal the wounds because it’s like a fungus. Unless healed completely, it just grows back and reinjures the poor man. If you know the apprentice level healing spell ‘healing hands,’ you may try.”

Twilight raised her hands and charged the spell. A soft yellow-white aura flowed over the man, healing his wounds. Twilight could see her mana bar draining under the strain of casting the unfamiliar spell. She held the spell until the last possible second and despaired when the spell frizzled and stopped from a lack of magicka.

Danica sighed. “You’ve come closer to healing him than any of us have. I’m afraid he’s going to die if I can’t find a better mage soon. It’s not your fault… I’ve never seen spriggan wounds this bad that didn’t already kill the man.”

Twilight was distraught at the idea that her failure could cost a man his life.

How could I fail? I have both a larger alicorn mana pool and the unicorn 25% cheaper spell casting in all schools. Wait…

Twilight stopped Danica from walking away. “Wait. If you could give me five lessons in Restoration magic… I could get the Apprentice Restoration Perk… and it might be enough to save his life.”

Danica started at Twilight in disbelief. “You… you mean to tell me… that you held that spell for that long without even having Apprentice Restoration? By Shor… you may have a larger mana pool than myself… although, far less trained. Mind you… I don’t normally do skill training for free, but this is something of an emergency. Let’s get started.”

Despite being magic, healing wasn’t a skill that seemed to come naturally to Twilight. She knew no Equestrian healing spells favored by unicorn doctors or nurses or even military medics. Given the number of fights that her and her friends had been in over the years… that seemed like a really bad oversight on her part. As such, the training took almost 3 hours for the five points of skill and since her skill was only going up from 15 to 20, it didn’t level her up to level 9.

Twilight had been saving her perk points for a time when they were desperately needed for something, and that time was now. She applied one point to Novice Restoration and then another point into Apprentice Restoration. She still had one point left to apply to something and she would earn yet another when she finally did hit level 9, but she was still determined to save the point until she knew exactly what she needed to survive the next adventure.

With her Restoration magic at 20 and the perks applied, she tried again. Once again, the yellow-white aura surrounded the soldier and Twilight felt considerably less strained casting the spell. The soldiers’ wounds closed completely and the remnants of the spriggan’s magic was banished as well. Once the soldier opened his eyes… Twilight ceased the casting.

Admiring her handiwork, Twilight smiled brightly. “Looks like you’re going to be okay.”

The soldier groaned. “Thank you, healer. Gods’ mercy upon you.”

Danica confirmed the successful healing. “I can’t thank you enough. How can I reward you?”

Twilight shrugged. “More free Restoration training after I level up would be nice. And of course, my services are open to you if you need anything else.”

Danica nodded. “I’ll keep you in mind. Safe travels to you in the meantime.”

Twilight decided to drop in on Warmaidens on her way out of town.

Adrianne greeted her warmly. "Good morning to you, Twilight. What are you up to today?”

Twilight sighed. “I need to sell my excess inventory before I leave town. You buy old equipment, right?”

Adrianne nodded. “I sure do. Let’s see what you have.”

Twilight proceeded to empty, not only her bags, but her magical storage portals as well. Adrianne looked at all the loot with wide eyes.

“By Shor… that’s a lot of junk. You’re sure you want to sell all of it?”

Twilight shrugged. “Um. Well. I didn’t see a magical option at the tanning rack to deconstruct fur armor back into the original furs that they were made out of… so I can guess that the forging magic doesn’t go that far. The Stormcloak armor might could be torn apart back into the leather used to make it, but I didn’t try. I’ve already used a full set of fur armor to make myself a fur-lined leather armor for myself yesterday so short of making a matching set of it for a traveling companion… which I don’t presently have, or a smaller child-sized version of it for Lucia as a gift… I just don’t need all this stuff weighing me down.”

Adrianne shrugged as she looked through all of it. “Well… I can only buy the weapons and armor. The other items would have to be sold at the General Goods Store or at the Alchemy shop. Children are allowed to wear a dagger for personal protection but may not wield anything more dangerous than that. There is no law that I’m aware of for letting children wear actual armor, but I suppose that you would have to stick to light armor to match the endurance of a child if you were to try to make her some real armor. A matching set to what you are wearing presently would actually look kinda cute on her. The Stormcloak Armor can be deconstructed into useable leather, just not as much leather as went into making it, much like everything else. I suppose it comes down to what you need more. Do you need the gold… or do you want to make the armor for the child.”

That was a real question that Twilight needed to answer.

Twilight swallowed nervously. “I suppose she’ll be safe enough in town and the faster I can buy a house the faster I can take care of her. She needs a home. So… how much is all this stuff worth?”

Adrianne looked it over. There were eight sets of Stormcloak armor and a couple of sets of fur armor, plus some miscellaneous boots, gloves and helmets. All of it was light armor, given that Twilight had smelted and repurposed pretty much everything piece of heavy equipment and most of the weapons.

“I’ll give you 500 gold for the lot.”

Twilight looked it over. “That’s it?”

Adrianne smiled weakly. “That’s honestly all it’s worth and its actually more than I would give most random adventurers that hadn’t helped me out. Nothing is enchanted and nothing is heavy armor. And there’s no weapons. Sorry, Twilight. It’s the best I can do.”

Twilight nodded with a deep sigh. “All right. I’ll take the 500 gold.”

The walk back to Riverwood was largely uneventful. Following the actual road instead of taking a short-cut across country led to an opportunity to see the Honningbrew Meadery and a few unique old bridges. She encountered no bandits, wildlife, or even other people, other than a few guards on the road. The hours she spent training and trading in town had slowed down her departure to a time that she considered regretfully late. The fur lined armor seemed to be doing its job for keeping her warm although she was still doubtful of the warmth it would provide after nightfall. Even so… it was better than what she had before and it made her greatly appreciative of the effort she put into making it, even if it cost her some gold from not being able to sell the equipment or supplies used to make it.

She sighed at her own thoughts. Circular logic could be a real downer sometimes.

She was relieved at having gotten rid of so much stuff and was finally prepared to take on the barrow. Her equipment wasn’t ‘great’ as she understood it, but it was somewhat unique, and it was much better than the average bandit. Maybe better than the average adventurer too…

Using the illusion spell Clairvoyance to divine the correct path, she bypassed Riverwood completely by turning up a mountain path before even reaching the bridge that led back into Riverwood.

This spell is amazing! I can’t recall any Equestrian magic that would point the way to a goal or destination. I’m going to have to figure out a way to create an Equestrian version of it for when I go home.

Twilight was so enraptured by the spell and the fact that it was rapidly leveling up her illusion skill… that she completely missed the wolf hiding behind the rock she had just passed until it attacked her.

It was an odd sensation. She felt the impact, and she even experienced seeing her light armor skill go up after having taken the hit, but she felt no pain. The armor was really doing its job.

She turned to face her attacker and unleased a volley of lightning at the otherwise helpless wolf. Despite being in a hurry, Twilight took the time to skin the wolf before continuing on her journey.

I guess that’s the wolf hide I need for a Companion’s guild backpack.

The higher she went up the hill, the more snow seemed to appear. It seemed odd to find so much snow all of a sudden, but the hill was a higher elevation than the surrounding areas and it was admittingly very cold up here despite not being much higher in elevation than the small town below the path.

Maybe the past snow fall simply doesn’t melt because where in Tamriel I am?

She saw a tower in the distance and was eager to reach it on the chance to warm herself up briefly before continuing up the path. Her steps were loud in the silence of the deserted old path, but she paid it no mind. She could have casted the spell muffle, but she wasn’t trying to sneak just yet. She could vaguely see a man leaning up against a tree when a woman exited the tower and seemed to look straight at her.

Before Twilight could call out a greeting, the woman drew a bow and called out a warning to the other man, whom upon closer inspection… appeared to be a bandit.

Of. Course. What else was I expecting?

Twilight raised her left hand and quickly cast Stoneflesh upon herself, enjoying the increased physical protection for the first time. A moment later, an iron arrow bounced off her reinforced leather armor, dealing only a small amount of damage.

Okay… that spell really works.

Steeling herself for a battle that she didn’t want, she raised both hands with a charged Sparks spell. Closing the distance, she showered both bandits in sparks and watched their health wither away under her magical onslaught. Neither one of them managed to hit her a second time with their weapons of choice. Taking no time to admire her victory, she looted both bandits of their weapons, armor, and supplies.

Hmm. They are bandits… I wonder if I could get away with it…

After a moments consideration… she also cut off the ears of both bandits. While somewhat unethical to do so… these bandits might could increase her bounty reward for the bandits of Silent Moons camp. Afterall… a bandit was a bandit and Bleak Falls Barrow was within the territory of Whiterun… so why shouldn’t the Jarl pay her to kill them? More gold in the coin purse equaled buying a house faster.

She explored the tower quickly, finding a third bandit to slay. This one was wearing Iron Armor and Twilight gulped nervously as he charged downstairs towards her.

Twilight jumped out of the way as she noticed that he seemed to lose control of his momentum and he crashed headfirst into a stone wall. She showered him with sparks, not allowing him time to recover. His death was swift although a lot of the damage he took was self-inflicted.

She looted this third bandit with efficiently, remembering to take both ears.

Looting the bandits was getting easier for her, but only because she knew that the end game was being able to sell the items to buy a house. She doubted that she would need to repurpose this set of equipment since her supplies were caught up. Of course… making more steel ingots and then crafting steel equipment to sell might be worth more gold, completely separate from leveling her smithing skills. Something to consider, maybe.

Exploring the tower didn’t take long, given that it was rather small. One chest to loot and a couple of dresser drawers which held ‘treasures’ that weren’t worth the title. She took everything of value and moved on, back towards her goal.

The one thing that bothered Twilight the most about the tower was that there was no fire and no cooking stove set up. How did the bandits stay warm up on the mountain, more or less in the elements? The tower didn’t even have a roof. It was barely warmer than outside, only blocking the wind. Did they only make a fire long enough to warm up and then put it out to avoid attracting attention? That seemed like a horrible waste of time.

Resuming down the path illuminated with Clairvoyance, Twilight quickly came across her goal.

The massive ancient stone temple stood before her, very… intact… to be ruins.

As she looked upon it in wonder, her eyes caught on two more people walking back and forth, apparently keeping watch.

Are all these bandits’ part of the group that stole the Golden Claw? How valuable is the damned thing? It’s obvious that Lucan isn’t going to pay me what its worth for its return.

Deciding to exercise some caution, Twilight renewed her stoneflesh and then cast muffle. She crouched and drew her imperial bow. She moved forward, careful not to make noise or too much movement. She had already noticed a pattern to the bandits’ patrol, so she walked to where she needed to be and waited with the steel arrow notched and ready to go. Once the bandit appeared and then stopped to survey the scene, Twilight loosed the arrow and it found its mark in the bandit’s chest, dropping her like a stone.

Having gained a better sense of the nature of combat and the use of the weapons that she wielded, Twilight almost instinctually knew that even with a sneak attack bonus, she barely killed that bandit with one shot. She dove into her inner mind and used her last saved perk point to unlock the first level of Overdraw, in the Archery skill tree.

Twilight slowly climbed the steps of the temple and found another target. Drawing the bow again, she shot the bandit in the back, killing him instantly. Two other bandits became aware of her presence and closed in on her, forcing her to put away her bow and draw upon her sparks spell once again.

By either random chance or luck, skill barely being a factor, she managed to dodge both of their attacks while casting the Sparks spell in both hands, damaging both of them until they both died from the onslaught.

The combat was both simple, yet terrifying. With all four targets dead, she proceeded to loot the corpses, careful to remember to take the ears as well.

Between the illusion skill ups from casting Clairvoyance and the sneak increases from successful sneak attacks, Twilight found herself eligible for level 9. She decided to wait for a better moment to level up, sensing that the barrow was going to be the most dangerous place she’s explored so far.

She surveyed the scene around her. The temple entrance was impressive. The snow covering the stone pillars and ground was almost peaceful next to the violence of combat that had just finished. Having walked around the entire courtyard, Twilight eyed the massive double doors to the temple proper and proceeded to go in.

Lucia was walking around Whiterun, asking a passersby for a coin. She had managed to chop 6 pieces of wood for Hulda’s fire, earning 30 gold. She had been willing to do more but Hulda didn’t want her to tire herself out on chores that an adult should be doing, least she injure herself or be forced to eat more than normal to keep up her energy in the draining cold of a Skyrim autumn day.

Lucia had wished that Twilight was still in town. She had gotten used to her company in even the short amount of time that they had spent together. Foolish of her to get so attached.

Even worse for her, she knew that Twilight was out on a job.

A dangerous job… that she might not come back from.

Lucia had spent the day praying for Twilight to survive the adventure she was on. She prayed at the Shrine of Talos, the Shrine of Kynareth and the Shrine of Akatosh. She wished could pray more but those were the only three shrines in town.

She had eaten two portions of the mammoth stew Twilight had provided her and she was still satisfied from from the second portion. While three meals a day might be standard in a normal family, Skyrim was a rugged place where minor inconveniences were normal. She didn’t need a third meal. She wasn’t sure if she could force herself to eat more than a piece of cheese with a small piece of bread as a snack at this point, which was something she didn’t have but could afford with the money she earned that day.

She did manage to play with Lars Battle-Born and Mila Valentia briefly, having the energy to do so from having eaten those meals earlier. It helped pass the time, but Lucia was still drawn to the main gate of town… wondering if it would open anytime soon.

She walked the town in endless circles, chatting with random citizens and looking at the main gate every time she passed it.

At the end of a long but uneventful day, Lucia returned to her room to rest. It was harder for her to fall asleep without Twilight holding her, and she felt cold without Twilight’s presence, but she managed to fall asleep eventually.