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<\/p>\nThe southernmost route to Riften was a beautiful run along the edge of the Jerall Mountains through the thickly-packed forest of yellow-leaved birch and aspen.\u00a0 Dardeh couldn\u2019t quite get over how different this part of Skyrim was than the stark grays and dark greens of his home in the Markarth area. If it hadn\u2019t been for needing to fight a wolf or bear every half hour or so he would have been tempted to just stroll along.<\/p>\n
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The Ratway in Riften. That\u2019s where he probably needed to go.\u00a0 Delphine had mentioned the old sewers in the lower level of the city as a potential hiding place for Esbern, and had warned him that finding him might be difficult, dangerous, and \u2013 if Esbern were still as stubborn as he had been years earlier \u2013 frustrating.<\/p>\n
Dardeh had spent several days in his home, resting, preparing for the trip, talking to Lydia and Lucia, and thinking about the dragons.\u00a0 If Esbern had eluded the Thalmor for this long he would be safe for a few more days; and if Delphine couldn\u2019t spare him enough time to get himself into shape, they were all going to die sooner rather than later.\u00a0 He told Lydia what was going on and why he needed to leave, and had instructed her that if anything should happen to him, the house was hers and Lucia\u2019s to share.\u00a0 He\u2019d also written his instructions down.<\/p>\n
\u201cJust in case, Lydia,\u201d he\u2019d told her in response to her not-very-thinly veiled aura of anxiety about the whole thing. \u201cI don\u2019t think anything\u2019s going to happen to me. I\u2019m pretty good at shouting people down these days,\u201d he\u2019d added, smirking.\u00a0 \u201cBut I don\u2019t want someone claiming that you two don\u2019t have the right to stay here if I\u2019m gone for a long time.\u201d\u00a0 He had placed the document in the safe and had told Lydia how to open it.<\/p>\n
He had spent a long time talking to Lucia about being away. It was obvious that losing her own father had been a huge trauma for her, because as soon as he mentioned going away her eyes had gotten huge.\u00a0 I\u2019m sorry. I wish I didn\u2019t have to leave, too.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not going to leave you alone, little one,\u201d he told her.\u00a0 \u201cI don\u2019t want you to worry.\u00a0 I have some important work to do that is going to help a lot of us, if it goes well.\u00a0 I\u2019m not going to the war, and I\u2019m not going to just disappear like your da or my da did. I promise that I\u2019ll be back as soon as I can. All right?\u201d<\/p>\n Lucia had put on a brave face and smiled, and had given him a hug.\u00a0 \u201cAll right, Papa,\u201d she told him.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll help Lydia with the house.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThat\u2019s my girl.\u00a0 Now go out and play.\u00a0 Maybe Braith is around.\u201d<\/p>\n Lucia frowned. \u201cBraith bullies me and Lars.\u00a0 I don\u2019t want to play with her anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh laughed.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll bet she\u2019s just lonely and wants someone to pay attention to her.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let her bully you.\u00a0 They used to bully me when I was a little boy, too.\u00a0 I just laughed at them and look how big I turned out to be.\u201d<\/p>\n She smiled at him and ran out the door.<\/p>\n \u201cBe careful, my Thane,\u201d Lydia had told him as he was leaving.\u00a0 Dardeh looked at her, ready to scold her about the \u201cThane\u201d again, but just smiled when he saw the look on her face.\u00a0 She was truly concerned.<\/p>\n \u201cI usually am.\u201d\u00a0 Usually, not always.\u00a0 He would never say that again after Helgen.\u00a0 \u201cThank you. It means a lot to me that you would say that. And that you\u2019ll take care of Lucia.\u201d<\/p>\n Lydia smiled, but it was a wan smile. \u201cOf course.\u00a0 Come back to us, Dardeh.\u201d<\/p>\n He had left Whiterun on another of its rare sunny mornings, reflecting on how much his life had changed since he had left the Reach.\u00a0 He looked up into the warmth of the sky and once again thought of his mother as he walked down the road, heading east along the river and around the base of the mountain.<\/p>\n What do you think, Ma?\u00a0 When you left I was a miner, single, and had never been very far away from Markarth. Since then I\u2019ve been through High Rock and Hammerfell, and parts of Cyrodiil, and I haven\u2019t mined any ore in what feels like months and months. To look at me you\u2019d think I was some kind of warrior. I\u2019ve met two different Jarls and one of them calls me his friend. I\u2019m a Thane of Whiterun, can you believe it? With a house of my own and a woman housecarl and no, it\u2019s not like that. And I have a daughter. It was wrong the way they just left her out there on the streets by herself. You\u2019d like her, Ma. She\u2019s the sweetest little thing.I wish you could see her. I\u2019ll probably always be single but I have a family, what do you think about that? I miss you, Ma.<\/em><\/p>\n There were butterflies simply everywhere on this morning, and bees zipping past his ears every so often. The air smelled sweet and moist from the rain that had passed the night before, and there was a light, warm breeze. He heard wolves howling, but they were far away howls and he simply relaxed and enjoyed his leisurely walk.<\/p>\n I still haven\u2019t found my sister yet but I\u2019m looking for her, Ma.\u00a0 I\u2019m glad you told me about her. If I find her I\u2019m going to need a bigger house.\u00a0 But here\u2019s the most important thing. I\u2019m Dragonborn.\u00a0 All those stories you used to tell me, when I was a boy?\u00a0 They weren\u2019t just stories. But you knew that, didn\u2019t you. You always told me I was different, and not just because of the obvious. That thing I could do with my voice? It was part of it. It\u2019s like I was getting ready for the dragons, somehow. You were right. I\u2019m the Dragonborn. And Alduin is real. I wish I could talk to you because I know you would be able to tell me what I need to know but I can\u2019t. And I\u2019m\u2026 afraid, Ma.\u00a0 But it would be worse if you hadn\u2019t been such a good ma.\u00a0 Because at least I know.<\/em><\/p>\n It was late in the afternoon on the day he reached the south gate of Riften, only to be stopped by a guard.<\/p>\n \u201cHold. And stand down. You need to use the north gate.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cWhy?\u00a0 This one\u2019s right here.\u201d<\/p>\n The guard glared at him.\u00a0 \u201cMy orders are to tell the riff-raff to use the north gate.\u00a0 You can either go there or find another city.\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh was not pleased.<\/p>\n He did, however, trudge his way around Riften\u2019s high stone walls, grumbling the whole way. They were good, solid walls here in Riften, old but solid. Where the wall came closest to the base of the eastern foothills, though, shrubs and dried grasses were thick, and Dardeh looked at them with eyes that had seen dragon fire.\u00a0 He caught a glimpse, here and there, of a wooden roof on the other side of the wall and thought the same thing he\u2019d thought in Ivarstead.\u00a0 They\u2019d best hope there are no more dragons this far south or they\u2019ll be in trouble. They may be on a lake but there would never be enough time to get enough water to the top of these roofs.<\/em><\/p>\n When he finally reached the north gate, he was stopped again. He glared at the Nord guard standing to his right, who puffed up his chest, acted official, and tried to convince Dardeh that he needed to pay a visitor\u2019s tax.\u00a0 Dardeh sighed and shook his head.<\/p>\n \u201cNo.\u00a0 There\u2019s no such thing as a visitor\u2019s tax.\u00a0 There is such a thing as a shakedown, though.\u00a0 And there\u2019s also such a thing as a guy who isn\u2019t going to fall for it. You\u2019re looking at him.\u201d<\/p>\n The two guards had exchanged a glance, and the one to Dardeh\u2019s left actually chuckled.<\/p>\n \u201cHe just really needs to come up with a new idea, that\u2019s all there is to it,\u201d he said to his fellow.<\/p>\n The other guard glared at him.\u00a0 \u201cDo you want to get us both killed?\u201d\u00a0 Then he looked at Dardeh and shrugged.\u00a0 \u201cAll right, I\u2019ll open the gate. Give me a moment,\u201d and went to do so. Dardeh pushed through the gate, trying to keep a straight face as he heard the guard with the key say \u201cSo who\u2019s gonna go over his head, me or you?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGods, brother. Not me. I value my skin. She\u2019s scarier than he is.\u201d<\/p>\n Guess this little game\u2019s been going on for a while.<\/em><\/p>\n Delphine had given him the name of a man who might be able to point him directly to Esbern, but before he headed down into the bowels of the city to search for either of them he wanted a drink and a bite to eat.\u00a0 The inn was right in front of him as he approached the noisy marketplace; he pushed the door open and made his way to the bar. It wasn\u2019t especially busy yet, although he had no doubt it would be very soon.\u00a0 All the better for the questions he needed to ask.<\/p>\n The innkeeper was a pale Argonian woman with the familiar raspy voice common to her race.\u00a0 She also had an obvious chip on her shoulder, warning him to hit the road if he didn\u2019t have any coin.<\/p>\n He grinned and slid onto a stool.\u00a0 \u201cI\u2019ll show you my coin if you\u2019ll tell me what\u2019s on the menu.\u201d<\/p>\n She smiled.\u00a0 Argonian smiles had always baffled him.\u00a0 They looked ever so close to snarls if a person wasn\u2019t paying attention, or so he thought.\u00a0 Keerava, as she introduced herself, cut him a slice of the apple pie that she had out on display and a flagon of ale to wash it down, and took his coins maybe a bit too eagerly. Then she hovered near him, leaning on the bar with her elbows.<\/p>\n \u201cBy the way,\u201d he said, taking a bite of the pie and instantly losing his train of thought. The pie was heavenly; juicy, tart and sweet at the same time and with a crust that practically melted in his mouth.\u00a0 Pie.\u00a0 It was the best. \u201cOh, this is really good, thanks.\u00a0 Really wonderful. Sorry, what I meant to ask you is this. I\u2019m looking for someone.\u00a0 An old guy who is supposed to be in hiding out around here.\u201d<\/p>\n She shook her head.\u00a0 \u201cNo, I\u2019ve never heard of anyone like that. There are plenty of old guys around, for certain, but none of them are hiding.\u00a0 But I\u2019ll tell you this much. If I were hiding out in Riften, the Ratway\u2019s where I\u2019d be.\u00a0 There\u2019s a kind of tavern down there called the Ragged Flagon, where all the lowlifes go to get drunk and knife each other.\u201d<\/p>\n He nodded.\u00a0 \u201cSounds wonderful. Thanks. That\u2019s what I had heard. I\u2019ll head down there to start looking.\u201d\u00a0 He slid a couple extra coins across the bar to her.\u00a0 Information was information, after all, and he had brought plenty of coins with him. She nodded and smiled, sweeping them off the surface and into her pockets.<\/p>\n \u201cWell watch yourself down there.\u201d<\/p>\n The fog had rolled in off the lake by the time Dardeh stepped back out into the marketplace, but that didn\u2019t seem to have driven anyone indoors; it was still noisy and full of activity.\u00a0 He had found himself carrying a number of wolf pelts, a couple of bear pelts, and a few weapons by the time he\u2019d gotten to Riften, and he decided to see what he could do with them at the smithy just outside the marketplace. The smith exchanged some of the weapons he\u2019d collected for some crafting feathers and a few ingots of moonstone; Dardeh wanted some better arrows and elven ones would be just the ticket.\u00a0 He chopped some firewood, then set to work on the pelts to make leather strips from them.<\/p>\n He had just turned to the forge to start making the arrows when there was a voice behind him, a deep, soft brogue.<\/p>\n \u201cA little light in the purse, eh lad? I can help you make some coin if you\u2019re interested.\u201d<\/p>\n Oh, that\u2019s excellent, Dardeh thought.\u00a0 Very good. I have four thousand, two hundred and some odd septims in my purse and they are not, all told, light.\u00a0 In fact, I should have left a whole lot more of them behind with Lydia, but I wanted to be sure that I could buy anything good that might show up at a smithy or a shop. Or a bar. I would tell him that, too, because it\u2019s so funny that he\u2019s so wrong, except for the fact that I know this gambit and I\u2019d just as soon not give him a reason to have his hands in my pockets. I\u2019ve had that happen before and I\u2019d like to avoid it right now.<\/p>\n \u201cNo, not really,\u201d he said, as pleasantly as he could manage, without turning. \u201cThanks for your concern, though.\u00a0 Is there something I can do for you?\u201d<\/p>\n He heard a snort.<\/p>\n \u201cI can take a hint, lad. Never mind, then.\u00a0 If you change your mind and would like to make a bit of money, come find me.\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh turned to look at the man as he walked away.\u00a0 Tall, red hair, a nasty scar down the left side of his face.\u00a0 Too bad, he thought.\u00a0 He might be good-looking if not for that.\u00a0 But I don\u2019t like a man who will walk up to a complete stranger and proposition him to do something shady.\u00a0 Odd, though. Usually a guy like him would be a better judge of things.\u00a0 Or maybe that\u2019s his standard line and he\u2019s just going through the motions today.<\/p>\n He shook his head, made a couple of batches of arrows, and then looked around for the stairs down to the lower level of the city, stairs that he knew must be nearby.<\/p>\n It wasn\u2019t hard to find the Ragged Flagon.\u00a0 There was muffled noise coming from behind a closed door at the bottom of a short ramp, so he walked in.\u00a0 The area itself wasn\u2019t exactly appealing, being in an old rainwater sewer, but it was clean and neat, which said to him that someone with a powerful voice had to be in charge. Clean a sewer? A challenge, to put it lightly.\u00a0 He walked through, taking stock of the patrons.\u00a0 Lots of townsfolk, and a number of people in matching dark leather armor. A number of them looked at him, saw someone they didn\u2019t recognize, and kept staring.<\/p>\n The barkeep was busy sweeping around his bar, but Dardeh noticed how cleverly he kept an eye on everything, glancing up between broom strokes so smoothly a person might never catch him at it.\u00a0 If anyone might know something about an old man hiding out nearby, he would be the man; but down here in the dark Dardeh wanted to keep his interest in Esbern to himself unless it was absolutely necessary to ask elsewhere. Particularly given the number of stares he was getting. Instead, he headed for the exit at the far side of the bar.<\/p>\n It took him a good long while to navigate the warrens of the Ratway.\u00a0 They were well-named.\u00a0 There was a path to follow that wound its way around a large open space and through several levels, past rooms where beggars and people who sounded none too sane either muttered to themselves or erupted swinging knives and axes.\u00a0 He found himself, at last, on a narrow balcony, before a door covered with chains and locks.<\/p>\n Well if I were hiding out, I don\u2019t know that I would advertise it quite so clearly as this. He knocked.\u00a0 \u201cEsbern? We need to get you out of here.\u00a0 The Thalmor know where you are.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cEsbern? No, no, I\u2019m not Esbern.\u201d\u00a0 The voice was that of an old man, slightly querulous and most definitely anxious.<\/p>\n \u201cEsbern, it\u2019s all right. Delphine sent me. She needs your help.\u00a0 The dragons have returned.\u201d<\/p>\n There was a distinct pause.\u00a0 Then the man spoke again.<\/p>\n \u201cDelphine?\u00a0 So you finally found her. And she led you to me. And here I am, caught like a rat in a trap.\u00a0 Well.\u00a0 I guess you\u2019d better come in.\u201d<\/p>\n He still thinks I\u2019m an enemy of some sort, that I was trying to catch him.\u00a0 Well, as long as he lets me in.<\/em> Dardeh then waited, and waited, and waited.\u00a0 It would have been funny if he had not had the uneasy sensation of being watched for the entire time that Esbern fiddled with locks and chains and latches.<\/p>\n \u201cWait, this one always sticks.\u00a0 Just a moment.\u201d<\/p>\n At last the door opened and Dardeh slipped inside.<\/p>\n Esbern was, as the Thalmor documents had suggested, in his late seventies.\u00a0 He was surrounded by books.\u00a0 He also seemed depressed: colorless, his face set in a sad frown, his eyes dull.\u00a0 When he spoke it was in tones of resignation.<\/p>\n \u201cDon\u2019t you see? The end is upon us. Alduin has returned, just as the prophecy said.\u00a0 He will devour all things, and the world will end.\u00a0 Nobody can stop him.\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh felt bad for him.\u00a0 He knew his prophecy, all right. But so did Dardeh.<\/p>\n \u201cExcept a Dragonborn, correct?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes, but no Dragonborn has been seen in centuries.\u00a0 It seems that the gods have forgotten us.\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh smiled.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s not hopeless, Esbern.\u00a0 I\u2019m Dragonborn. It\u2019s a very strange thing, but I can Shout, and when I kill a dragon I absorb its power somehow. \u00a0In fact, I have met Alduin.\u00a0 He is raising the dragons from the dead but I can kill them. \u00a0We need your help to stop him, and we need to get you out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n The old man\u2019s eyes lit up.\u00a0 \u201cYou\u2019re\u2026 Dragonborn?\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh smiled, and nodded.\u00a0 \u201cYes, for better or worse I am.\u201d<\/p>\n He watched Esbern\u2019s face and eyes brighten as the implications worked through his mind.<\/p>\n \u201cThe gods have not abandoned us after all?\u201d\u00a0 He looked around his room, eyes settling on this or that thing as he came to a decision. \u201cWe must\u2026 we must\u2026. We must go.\u00a0 Take me to Delphine. There\u2019s no time to lose.\u00a0 We have much to discuss!\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh waited again, for quite a good stretch, while Esbern rushed from one side of his room to another, looking for things that he simply had to have with him and not being able to find them.\u00a0 It might have been tiresome, given the need to get away without the Thalmor finding them, but Dardeh was amused.\u00a0 And pleased.\u00a0 He\u2019d managed to give the old man a little bit of hope just by standing there and existing, and that made him unaccountably happy.<\/p>\n What happened next did not make him happy at all.<\/p>\n Once Esbern had secured as many important tomes as possible so as not to leave valuable information behind for the Thalmor to discover, he followed Dardeh out the door.\u00a0 They hadn\u2019t gotten more than a few steps out onto the balcony when a voice from below rang out.<\/p>\n \u201cThere\u2019s the Blades agent! Kill him!\u201d<\/p>\n A figure in the distinctive gold and rose Elven armor of the Thalmor stepped out through a cage door into the open area several levels below Dardeh and began firing fireballs toward Esbern.\u00a0 Dardeh didn\u2019t have a good enough angle of attack to Shout at the man, so he pulled out his bow and prepared to fire.<\/p>\n Esbern beat him to it.<\/p>\n Esbern didn\u2019t use a bow.\u00a0 He cast a Stoneflesh spell on himself.\u00a0 Then he summoned a fire atronach, which immediately began throwing its own fireballs at the Thalmor.<\/p>\n That was the last thing in the world I would have expected. The old guy is good!<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cEsbern! Come on!\u201d he yelled, and ran for the first of the nearly endless corridors they would need to navigate in order to get out of the Ratway.<\/p>\n It was a long trip out.\u00a0 Dardeh took out several Thalmor.\u00a0 Esbern summoned a Frost atronach that beat another to death.\u00a0 They were almost to the doorway into the Ragged Flagon when one last Thalmor stepped out from the shadows and cried \u201cSurrender to the Thalmor! You cannot escape!\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBet I can,\u201d Dardeh said, calmly, rushing forward and attacking.\u00a0 He stabbed upward with both of his father\u2019s swords, piercing the elf through and through, lifting him completely off the floor and then throwing him back down, dead, so hard that the body bounced when it hit the floor.\u00a0 It was a brutal attack.<\/p>\n Dardeh\u2019s head swam for a moment.\u00a0 He looked down at the bleeding elf and shook his head.<\/p>\n Why did I do that?\u00a0 What is happening to me?<\/em><\/p>\n A few months before, the most violent thing he could remember doing was killing a saber cat that had attacked him on the side of the road one day while he\u2019d been walking home from the mine.\u00a0 Aside from that, he had attacked ore veins, vigorously.\u00a0 That was all.<\/p>\n He had long since lost track of how many people he had killed since he had left home to search for his half-sister.\u00a0 It almost seemed commonplace, in any given day, to kill one or two people in his travels.\u00a0 Yes, they were people who attacked him first, but still.<\/p>\n This is madness.<\/em><\/p>\n He took a deep breath, shook his head, and looked around for Esbern, who was trying and failing to maneuver around his own frost atronach and get into the narrow corridor.<\/p>\n \u201cCome on, Esbern,\u201d he said.\u00a0 \u201cLet\u2019s get you out of here.\u201d<\/p>\n The southernmost route to Riften was a beautiful run along the edge of the Jerall Mountains through the thickly-packed forest of yellow-leaved birch and aspen.\u00a0 Dardeh couldn\u2019t quite get over how different this part of Skyrim was than the stark grays and dark greens of his home in the Markarth area. If it hadn\u2019t been … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/02\/2-1-15-2.png\")
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<\/p>\nPart I: Dardeh<\/a><\/div>\nPrevious<\/a> \/ Next<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"