The Dragonborn Comes (a Skyrim fanfiction)

Chapter Thirteen - Blood's Honour

"No backing out now," I inform him. "Like I said. Quick trip in and then a quick trip out,"

"Why are we doing this?" Marco asks me.

"I'm not allowed to say," I reply. "Official Companion business,"

"Fair enough," Marco nods. He takes a deep breath. "Shall we proceed? After you, sister,"

"Milk-drinker," I mutter under my breath and I clamber through the small cave opening.

The cave is pretty dismal. Before we make any progress through, I drink a potion to give me extra strength in battle and one to resist magical damage. Marco informs me that his robes see to his protection and he casts the weird spell that temporarily alters his flesh. 

 Marco and I creep along through a narrow tunnel and then we emerge into large cavern, smothered by mist. I can't see any of the witches, but I keep my weapons drawn and Marco has a ball of fire in one hand and a ball of sparks in the other hand. 

Suddenly, out of nowhere, I hear a horrible cackling sound and I see a flurry of grey, launching itself at Marco...one of the witches! Marco shoots at her with a ball of sparks and I jump forward to attack the beast. I grab the witch by the neck and pull her off of Marco and then drive my sword through her chest. She writhes and screeches in agony but then goes still.

"You okay, brother?" I ask Marco. 

"Watch out!" Marco shouts. 

Before I can retaliate, I feel a wave of cold overcome me and I try to move...but I can't. I glance down at my legs and I give a yelp of terror when I see that they're encased in ice. There's a second witch in front of me, the one that cast the spell.

"Yol!" I yell, sending a stream of fire breath towards her. She dodges out of the way, but I still hear her shriek when some of the flames burn her. Marco begins shooting more sparks at her, his face rigid with concentration. The two are locked in a magic duel, the witch using ice magic and Marco using shock. 

"Use your magic Skylar!" Marco yells. 

I curl my fingers and focus, trying to will a ball of fire to materialise in my hands but to no prevail. Marco's energy seems to be depleting swiftly and then I remember he only has a limited source of magicka...and if he ran out, we'd be screwed. I try harder with the fire magic, but only produce a pitiful little ball of fire. I focus it on the ice encasing my legs, hoping that it'll hurry up the melting process.

Marco gives a yell of pain and I look up to see his spells failing and the witch sends a blast of ice magic that throws Marco across the cavern. He slams into the cave wall and I let out a small scream. 

The witch turns to face me. I'm absolutely, completely fucked. The fire isn't making any progress with melting the ice and the witch is throwing more ice at me and dodging is futile. My arms are freezing up and I feel the cold beginning to seriously deplete whatever energy I had left.

The witch creates a sharp, lethal-looking ice shard and aims it right at me. It sails towards me at a sickeningly fast pace and I shut my eyes, bracing myself for the inevitable impact.

But it doesn't come. 

The spike hits the stalhrim necklace around my neck - and the spike and the ice encasing my legs both shatter. The witch stands rooted to the spot, realising that now she's the one that's fucked. 

I unsheathe my sword and axe and I run at the witch. She helplessly tries to send more ice magic my way, but I easily deflect them with my weapons. The stalhrim necklace is glowing and it's given me a sudden burst of strength.

I knee the witch in the chest and when she staggers back, I take my sword and axe and slice her head cleanly off her neck. She falls down to the ground and her head rolls in my direction. Pulling a face, I pick up the head by the hair and stuff it into a knapsack I found laying around at Jorrvaskr. Then I jog over to Marco, to see how he's doing. 

He's sat up against the cave wall, slowly healing himself. I pull out a small, minor healing potion that I brought with me and I hand it to him to drink. Then I cast a Healing Hands spell and help Marco out with that. 

"You remember Healing Hands but not a basic fire spell?" Marco asks me incredulously. 

"I've been using Restoration spells a lot more than Destruction spells," I shrug. "I got a head...we should head back now," 

"Yes, yes, give me a moment," Marco nods. 

"No. We leave now...I'm pretty sure there's more of these witches in this cave and I don't want to wait around to find out," I shake my head. "Come on, I'll help you,"

I pull Marco to his feet and we cautiously make our way out of that damned cave. I'm annoyed to see that the drizzle is still there and the temperature has dropped by a lot. I hear a distant rumble of thunder and see slightly ominous dark clouds in the distance, in the direction of Whiterun. I shake it off and me and Marco head towards Falkreath, in order to get a carriage back home. 

But I can't quite ignore this feeling in the pit of my stomach, like something terrible is going to happen. 

***

When we get to Whiterun it's begun raining, rather than drizzling. Marco and I hurry through the town, eager to get to Jorrvaskr as soon as possible. I notice that the marketplace is entirely abandoned, but I try to think nothing of it. After all, it is raining. They're all probably inside the Bannered Mare. 

We walk up the steps that lead to the Gildergreen and that's when I notice a slight crowd has gathered outside of Jorrvaskr and my breathing hitches slightly. This is unusual. 

Marco and I jog towards Jorrvaskr and I'm stopped by Fralia Greymane. 

"I'm so sorry my dear," she dabs at her eyes with a tissue. 

My heart sinks and I feel myself trembling a little. I take deep breaths, trying not to let the anxiety get to me. "What's happened?"

"Jorrvaskr was attacked while you were away-"

I sprint away from her, suddenly gripped by an awful panic. This isn't going to be good. a