Rise of House Sigeweald Book One (Skyrim Fanfiction)

Chapter Thirty-One: My heroes had the heart, to lose their life out on a limb

"An Imperial, and Breton, and a Nord are drinking at an inn. They each get a fly in their mead. The Breton pushes his tankard away in disgust. The Imperial reaches into his glass and plucks the fly out. The Nord plucks the fly out, shakes it violently over the glass, saying, Spit it out, ya bugger!"

Yep, thought Elspeth, we're going to die. She could hear Benor laughing beside her and starting another joke. "A priestess of Arkay and a Vigilant of Stendarr walk into a tavern...."

This was the Gods' punishment for her reckless zeal and stubborn determination. At the Drunken Huntsman, Jenassa had offered her services when she asked for directions to Northwatch Keep, but no, Elspeth wanted to keep the mission anonymous and find someone outside of Whiterun. She supposed that wasn't reckless or stubborn, but she probably should have taken her up on it. She meant to hire Belrand, the spellsword from Solitude, but he had been contracted for a month-long job in the Pale. When she asked where she might find someone discreet, Sorex Vinuis sent her to Morthal to find Benor, a scrappy young Nord who occasionally took odd jobs. She met him at Moorside Inn where they brawled and had a drink. He appeared tough, but had no defensive or offensive magic ability and so she politely declined his offer to accompany her.

"Anya!" he hollered, as he trotted up from where he'd fallen behind. "Anya, am I a mage now?"

"What?" she said, trying—and failing—to suppress her exasperation.

Benor seemed not to care, however. "My armor feels very strange against my skin." He squirmed a bit and frowned. "Do I have magicka now?"

"It's enchanted to help protect you against destruction magic. You'll get used to it," she reassured him.

"If you say so." He grinned although his tone suggested that he wasn't convinced.

Every time Elspeth had tried to leave Morthal, he was there, waiting to go along with her. With little time and patience left, she relented but not until after spending the rest of her coin enchanting his armor and buying every last useful potion, poison, and ingredient from Lami, the local apothecary.

He wanted to be a guard, but he had yet to be appointed to the town watch. He liked to talk. A lot. Elspeth recalled how Ralof liked to talk, but he knew how to pace himself. Benor did not. And he didn't ask her any personal questions. Normally, this was her preference, but now she longed for a chance to control the tenor of the conversation. He didn't appear to need much sleep either, which would have been wonderful if he would have stopped talking on his watch long enough for her to rest. Finally—and when he wasn't looking—she shoved some tundra cotton, leftover from the Resist Magic potions she mixed for him, into her ears and managed to catch a couple of uninterrupted hours of slumber.

"I'm the best warrior in Morthal, and that's no boast." After the 345th time he said this, he proved it when a troll came bounding down the path toward them. Elspeth cast a powerful fireball and just as she was aiming another one, Benor fired an arrow into the Troll's face. She had to draw her spell back as he ran up and cracked its head open with his axe. The Troll was down and Benor, without missing a beat, continued his story about the time when he was ten and the caravans were leaving town and he followed them halfway to Dawnstar before his da realized he was gone, and they offered him moon sugar, which he didn't eat because he just wanted to look at the Khajiit because he liked to watch their tails sway in the wind and have you ever noticed that Argonian tails don't quite have the same sort of swing?

If she could get him to stop talking, maybe they wouldn't die after all.

In three days time, they arrived and camped overnight a safe distance from the Keep. The following morning, they approached slowly and hid behind a small hill. The winds off the Sea of Ghosts were frigid but the day was surprisingly clear. Three guards were visible from where they sat and, using a Detect Life spell, she saw three more behind the wall.