Rise of the Dragonborn

Chapter Four- Betrayal

I could see Isran stood with Onmund at the archery area; I became aware that Kaldmir was walking alongside me and began to panic; what if Isran didn’t know he was here? “Sorry, borrowed your wife to give her a tour of the caves.” Kaldmir’s deep but soft voice called out. “Ah, that’s perfectly alright. We’re all sitting down to eat now, come on.” Clearly Onmund was hungry as he started towards the kitchen while still talking.

As we entered the warm kitchen, Agmaer was putting out an enormous spread of food. Leg of goat roast, roast beef and steamed mudcrab legs, salmon steaks, horker stews, venison stews, all kinds of fruits and vegetables. Having a sweet tooth, I was drawn to the sweet rolls, apple pies, all kinds of sweet dumplings and crostatas.  We sat around the long table in the centre of the room and enjoyed the feast. The stories and laughs flowed, talks of battles with giants and dragons, of vampire attacks and travels.

The fire crackled passionately throughout the hours we spent talking and drinking. “Did Kald tell you how we met?” Isran laughed, we were all still laughing from Agmaer’s story about the time he tried (and failed) to ride a mammoth ending in him lying in a pile of dung. “No I don’t believe he did, is it a good story then?” I barely managed to choke out between laughs. “It’s a fantastic one!” he shouted, he was clearly drunk by this point. Kaldmir, sat next to me, was shaking his head and trying to stop himself from laughing. Onmund was sat on my other side, beckoning Isran to continue the story. I couldn’t help but wonder why no one had questioned Kald’s eyes; their colour was not normal, not mortal. “I had gone out to get supplies for the fort about 2 months ago… was it 2 months? Yeah! 2 months ago, and I saw this person stood by the lake looking up at the fort so I shouted ‘Hey! What are you doing here?’ Frightened the goddamn life outta him didn’t I! The boy ran out onto the ice, as the lake was more frozen over back then, fell through and ended up with countless fish in his clothes! So I helped him up to the fort and the bugger hasn’t left since” He was nearly falling off the bench laughing at his own story. “Yeah, well… I wasn’t expecting you to be stood behind me shouting in my ear was I? Anyway, it’s thanks to me you had enough fish for a week!” Kaldmir jumped to his own defence, clearly embarrassed but also laughing.

After a while Kaldmir showed us to our room. It was jumbled with boxes and cobwebs like the rest of the castle but with a bit of love it would be perfect. It was basic, but had the necessities and for the moment that was all I cared about. Just before we retired to bed, Agmaer came in with a letter that a courier had delivered a few minutes prior. “One of us needs to go home.” Onmund announced, reading the letter. Had something happened to the children? Is Lydia alright? My mind panicked “What’s wrong? Onmund?” The worry came through in my voice; Dragons, had a dragon attacked? Vampires? I may be able to face them myself but I still worried every time my home was in danger and I wasn’t there, for I knew others weren’t as able as I was. “Lydia has been called up to be in the Jarl’s guard, someone needs to be with the children. I’ll go so that you can focus on training and hunting those assholes.” He said, kissing me on the forehead and pushing back my hair.

He showed his love so often; it filled me with guilt for I had never been in love with Onmund, not truly. Love in Skyrim was hard to come by, he was my best friend and he loved me. I knew he would care for me and look out for me so I agreed to marry him. As much as I would have loved to find someone I loved as much as he did me, I dreaded it for it meant admitting to my husband that I hadn’t loved him. I hoped that would never have to happen.

Onmund departed and Kaldmir joined me in reading for an hour or two. No one was around and I had so many questions to ask him but I just couldn’t bring myself to ask them. As if he had read my mind he said, “You can ask me anything, you know. You don’t have to feel uncomfortable around me.” In all truth, I did feel a little uncomfortable; he was sat so close to me I could once again feel his ice-cold breath as it caressed my skin. I stood up and leaned against the equally cold pillar in the centre of the room, “How old are you. I mean… you look maybe 20 but you’re a vampire, you’re immortal… so how old are you really?” He laughed and smiled at me, he had clearly been expecting that question to be asked eventually. He had a fun personality, I could tell by the way he made it into a game, “Guess, go on… I dare you to guess my age Dragonborn” He said leaping from his seat and circling the pillar around me. I still to this day do not know how he found out I was Dragonborn. “I don’t know! For all I know you’re thousands of years old, for all I know you really are 20,” I laughed trying to keep track of his movements around me. “Ok then, are you under 100 years old?” I finally decided to guess. He grinned such a cheeky grin that I straight away knew that the answer was no. “Ok then are you… 300?” I laughed, stepping away from the pillar. He suddenly jumped in front of me, startling me back towards the pillar “Not quite, I’m 240” He said, almost whispering in my ear. By this point, his arm was resting on the pillar above my head and he was once again leaning very close to my body. He was so much taller than me, I hadn’t realised until that second how tall he really was.

Isran, as silently as the demons he hunted, appeared in the entrance to my room. I had no idea how long he had been watching Kaldmir lean continuously closer to me before I saw him, but as soon as I did, I pushed Kaldmir away from me and announced that I was retiring to bed. Kaldmir looked almost disappointed, or upset. I don’t know why, did he have feelings for me? Is that why he kept invading my personal space? No, I thought to myself, he’s only known me a few hours that’s impossible. It took me a long time to fall asleep; I couldn’t help thinking about the vampires that were out there killing people in that moment.

I recall having a dream that night, an awful dream. Of bloodshed and betrayal;

I watched as my master rounded up the last of the mortals from Solitude into the courtyard of the Bards College, “What a stupid place, who on Nirn would come to this swamp of a college?” I announced, the others laughed. Our master, Cain, called me forward to his side. He placed his arms around me and leaned in close, “These are all yours, my dear, go have some fun.” He whispered with a wicked grin, he then kissed my neck. My whole body trembled, yearning for the sweet, warm blood that stood before me. The hunger was disturbing, but the hunt was erotic. I ripped into the flesh of the mortals before me, feeling my strength go with each carcass I drained. Finally, there were only two left, a small child and a man I recognised… Onmund. “My dear, you have a choice here, one must be set free, to honour the hunt, and the other is all yours. Choose wisely.” Who should I pick? The weakling infant or the man I called my husband? I launched myself forward in frenzy…

I awoke in sheds of tears and sweat pouring like a never ending river from my skin before I could see which would perish at my hands. Almost immediately, Kaldmir was at my side comforting me, telling me everything was alright. Was it? In one dream I had betrayed my husband by letting another man hold me, and then by possibly killing him! And I had betrayed my mortality, I was one of them. Gods I hoped I would never become one of those monsters.