Chapter 7 – All Roads Lead to Bleak Falls Barrow

Twilight awoke the next morning with Lucia in her arms, the child resting comfortably as if it was the best night sleep she had gotten in months. To Twilight’s regret, her own movements from waking up also woke up Lucia.

Lucia yawned widely while rubbing the sleep from her eyes. “Good morning mommy… er… I mean, Miss Twilight.”

Twilight felt a pang of guilt, but she simply couldn’t adopt an orphan without a house of some kind to let the child live in. The open roads of Skyrim were dangerous enough for a well-equipped adventurer… it was no place for a child. She tried to smile anyways, pushing the awkwardness of the misspoken familiar title away from the conversation.

“Good morning, Lucia. I have one serving of mammoth stew left over from last night that you can have for breakfast. I’ll be gone all day running errands and finishing tasks around town, but I’ll be back tonight so just come back to the Inn after it gets dark, and I’ll be sure to rent the room again for tonight. I don’t know how long I’ll be in Whiterun but as long as I’m in the city, I’ll do my best to provide for you. So try to save up as much gold as you can.”

Lucia nodded in acceptance. “That’s more than fair. You’ve shown me more kindness in one day than most people have in the entire time I’ve been in the city.”

Twilight felt a little bit of rage at that. Sure, Equestria had orphans… but Princess Celestia made sure they were taken care of. The population imbalance caused a lot of single mothers to have to give up their foals if they couldn’t afford to raise them, estrus forcing them to want to mate even if they didn’t have a husband that could provide for the family. Herding was allowed but was less common than it used to be. Still, most orphans ended up in an orphanage until either adopted by a family able to afford their care… or until they hit 16 and could opt to do early enlistment into the Royal Guard… or 18 when they could leave and get a job. Even then… they weren’t thrown out… they were allowed to stay until they could afford a place to live, at least until age 21. At 21… they were on their own. But still. Lucia was 12, by her own admission.

Twilight cleared her throat and tried to speak with a sincere but honest tone. “I would adopt you if I could… but I don’t even own a house. I know that Brenuin told you to beg… but maybe you should try to work? Offer to serve drinks here at the Inn… offer to sweep floors at one of the shops… offer to run messages or other errands around town. Anything that would allow you to earn enough gold daily to pay for a room and some food.”

Lucia nodded. “I can try to ask around… again. I know that Hulda is always looking for people to chop wood for the fire and she’ll pay 5 gold per piece of firewood… but swinging the axe kinda scares me a little. I can do it… but… she only needs so much firewood per day. As to the rest… Saadia helps Hulda serve drinks already so I can’t do that. I might could become an Apprentice at Warmaidens but working the forge is harder than chopping wood. I doubt any of the other shops are hiring, or at least, they weren’t the last time I asked.”

Twilight winced. Of course she has explored all these options on her own… she’s not stupid.

“I’ll pay for the room before I leave, that way no one else gets it today. Even if I don’t come back for some reason, feel free to sleep here tonight.”

Lucia nodded and they both got out of bed and went downstairs. Twilight set Lucia up with the mammoth stew and more wine before going to Hulda and dropping another 10 gold on the counter.

“I’d like to rent the same room for tonight. Even if I don’t come back, I’d like Lucia to be able to enjoy the room. Is that okay?”

Hulda took the gold and nodded. “To be honest… I wish more people would buy the room for her. At least that way I get the gold from the room being paid for and the child doesn’t have to sleep outside. I wish I could justify letting her sleep here for free when the room doesn’t get rented but I can’t set a standard that I can’t give to other people unable to pay, like Brenuin.”

Twilight did have to concede the point. Setting those types of precedents could hurt the Inn’s business in the long run. With nothing left to do, she left the Inn and headed towards her first important errand, Dragon’s Reach.

Climbing the stairs to the castle was good exercise first thing in the morning but Twilight didn’t like it much because her bags were still full to bursting. Getting rid of 4 mammoth tusks, the food ingredients for one batch of Mammoth stew, and one rusty family heirloom had only reduced her backpack weight by about 32 units of weight. She would definitely need to offload more before going to clear another bandit camp or Ancient Nord ruin, but that would require her to either sell or repropose the rest of her inventory. She still didn’t know how much gold she would need for day to day living, her recent daily expenses having been small. But she knew that weapons, armor, and tools was worth more than gold if she needed what she had… which was why she was reluctant to part with anything.

It was a problem that she would have to solve soon.

Her outstanding request to retrieve the Golden Claw, presumably from Bleak Falls Barrow, was still in the forefront of her mind. She didn’t know long it normally took to ‘clear’ a ruin therefore it was hard for her to judge how long Lucan would wait before trying to either get the Claw himself or hire another adventurer to retrieve it. Given the danger, it wouldn’t be hard to imagine a novice adventurer dying in the attempt. Without armor… going into the ruin was a death trap, and Twilight knew it. So… she owed it to Lucan to wrap up her business in Whiterun as quickly as possible to return to her previous quests… except… what about Lucia?

She wasn’t able to address her own thoughts as she arrived at the castle faster than she thought she would. The Guards didn’t attack her when she opened the doors to enter the castle, so she had to assume that they had the same type of day court schedule that Princess Celestia held. She walked past a few maids and other guards patrolling the hall and past a long table that seemed to double for meals and meetings.

Before Twilight could get passed the table, a Dark Elf that seemed to be serving as a bodyguard of some kind drew a steel sword and walked towards her. Twilight stopped where she was and allowed the Dark Elf to approach.

“What is the meaning of this? Jarl Balgruuf is not receiving visitors.”

Twilight cleared her throat. “Riverwood calls for the Jarl’s aide.”

The Dark Elf’s eyes narrowed. “You have my attention. What threatens Riverwood?”

Twilight took in a deep breath. “A dragon destroyed Helgen.”

The dark elf put away her sword. “You know about Helgen. Well… that explains why the guards let you in. Come with me. The Jarl will want to speak to you personally.”

Twilight followed the Dark Elf to the throne a respectful distance behind her and allowed herself to be presented to the Jarl. The Jarl looked her over before turning back to his bodyguard.

The Jarl was still a little hot tempted from his argument with his advisor. “Irileth… who is this?”

Irileth bowed ever so slightly. “This Adventurer witnessed the destruction of Helgen. I thought you’d want to personally ask her some questions.”

The Jarl’s brow rose. “So… you were at Helgen. You saw this Dragon with your own eyes?”

Twilight nodded. “The Imperials were about to execute Ulfric Stormcloak when the Dragon appeared. It nearly toppled the watchtower by landing on it. It destroyed Helgen in short order, took no apparent injury from arrows or spells, and I last saw it flying over Bleak Falls Barrow in the general direction of Whiterun. This was… 3 days ago now. I haven’t seen it since, but to be honest, I haven’t been looking for it.”

Balgruuf grunted. “It doesn’t surprise me that Ulfric was mixed up in that somehow…” He turned back to his advisor. “So what do you think now, Proventus? Do we trust in the strength of our walls… against a dragon?”

Before Proventus could speak, Irileth spoke again. “My lord, we should send troops to Riverwood, at once. If that dragon is still lurking in the mountains…”

Proventus’ eyes went wide. “No! That would be a provocation! The Jarl of Falkreath might think we are prepared to join Ulfric’s side and attack him. We should…”

Balgruuf roared in rage. “I will not sit idly by and watch as a dragon burns my Hold and slaughters my people! Irileth… send a detachment of Guards to Riverwood, at once.”

Irileth smirked at Proventus before bowing to the Jarl. “Yes, my Jarl.”

Proventus shook his head. “If you’ll excuse me, I’ll return to my duties.”

Balgruuf huffed. “Yes, that would be best.” He turned to Twilight and appraised her. “I didn’t catch your name, Adventurer.”

Twilight smiled at him warmly. “My name is Twilight Sparkle of Ponyville.”

Balgruuf nodded slowly. “So… you’re a pony? I’ve heard of your race, but I’ve never had the privilege of meeting one. Tell me… is your homeland far from here?”

Twilight hedged around the answer. “Well… I assume so… it requires powerful magic for my people to come here and powerful magic to get home. I don’t know how to get home without that magic, in fact. I was sent here to learn. And being an adventurer… is a good way to meet lots of people and to travel to lots of places. I’m at your service, Jarl. Do you have a task for me?”

Balgruuf thought about it and then nodded. “Yes… there is something you can do for me… something for someone with your particular talents, perhaps. Come, lets speak to my court wizard. He’s been looking into these dragons and rumors of dragons.”

As Balgruuf got off his throne, Twilight took a respectful step backwards to give him more space and then proceeded to follow him into an adjacent room. He turned to a second man wearing mage robes.

“Farengar. I believe I found someone that can help you with your dragon project. Go ahead and fill her in on all the details.”

As Balgruuf walked away, Farengar appraised her in turn. “So the Jarl thinks that you can be of use to me. Yes, I could use someone to fetch something for me. Well. When I say fetch, what I mean is delve into an Ancient Nord ruin in search for an Ancient Stone Tablet that may or may not be there.”

Twilight’s enthusiasm for this task was fading fast. “And what does that have to do with dragons?” Twilight was expecting a displeased reaction from her questioning his ‘wisdom’, but he seemed almost pleased by her snark.

He actually smiled a little. “Ahh. No mere brute mercenary but a thinker! Perhaps even a scholar? You see, when stories about dragons started to resurface, people dismissed them as nonsense. One sure mark of a fool is anyone who dismisses anything as being impossible without trying to prove it. But where did they go all those years ago and why are they coming back now? I have my own theories, but it will require more research which is why I need the ‘Dragonstone.’ Once I have it, I can use it to update a map of Skyrim and then we can go from there.”

Twilight nodded. “That sounds easy enough… so which ruin am I going to?”

Farengar blinked. “Oh, yes. I didn’t say. It’s Bleak Falls Barrow, near that miserable little village of Riverwood.”

Twilight decided not to comment on the disrespect he had for a village that not only had friends of hers but was within the territory of the Jarl he served. She was, however, shocked that she now had a second reason to enter the ruin.

Looks like I was going to have to go to Bleak Falls Barrow regardless… is it fate?

She cleared her throat. “I will need more supplies before I enter a ruin that dangerous. I need soul gems and more spells if you have any for sell… however… I don’t have a lot of gold on me at the moment. Is there anything you would be willing to trade for or something that you need?”

Farengar hummed to himself. “I am in need of some gold rings for enchantments. I need at least 20 rings. The rings made by Eorlund Grey-Mane are simply overpriced. The base value of a Gold Ring is 75 gold, and they want nearly 5 times that. It’s preposterous. If you can make me 20 gold rings… I’ll give you… hmm… 150 gold each, double what they are worth. What do you say?”

Twilight nodded. “That sounds fair… but will 3,000 gold pay for all the spells you sell that I don’t already have?”

Farengar shrugged. “I don’t know what spells you already have so I can’t answer that. I will say that I only sell Novice and Apprentice spells so not only are they not that expensive, but there also isn’t that many of them. I wish I could offer you a better deal but with nearly all my needs provided for me by the Jarl, I simply don’t need much. Still… getting the gold to make the rings might be harder than you think. But still… I’ll honor the deal no matter how long it takes you. Just, please, try to hurry.”

Twilight shrugged. “Sure, I’ll work on that. Do you have any other errands I can do for you in the meantime if you need 20 gold rings for the other project?”

Farengar nodded. “There is one other task. Could you deliver these Frost Salts to Arcadia? She’s the Alchemist that runs Arcadia’s Cauldron.”

He handed her the frost salts and she nodded. “Of course, I was going there today anyways. I’ll need some potions for the barrow.”

Farengar almost sneered. “Well, I’m sure she’ll give you some potions as a form of recompense. If you’ll excuse me, I need to get back to work. Don’t come back without some gold rings or the Dragonstone.”

Twilight left the Court Wizard’s quarters a little bewildered.

If all mages act like that in Skyrim, then it’s no wonder that mages and magic isn’t trusted here. I swear he was speaking in the third person away from being worse than Trixie Lulamoon.

Author's Note

Happy New Year and hopefully many more chapters to come