Emmet opened his eyes again once he felt his feet planted firmly on solid ground. He smiled to himself, still feeling Lucy's hand in his.
"We made it," Kitty breathed, looking around. The world around them was awash in twilight blue; overhead, the night sky was alight with shimmering colors and bright stars.
And ahead lay a heavy fog so thick they couldn't see more than a few feet.
"That doesn't feel natural," Kitty said with a shudder.
Iron-Tail stepped forward to test it, and hissed in pain as he hurriedly backed out again. "Nay, lass, 'tis somethin' most foul."
"I've got an idea," Emmet said, and Shouted the path clear. The thick mist faded, clearing the path. They hadn't made it far down the path when Lucy froze. "Lucy?" Emmet asked, giving her a worried look.
"Denny!" Kitty cried out, rushing forward.
"Kitty?!" The ghostly scout caught her as she launched herself at him, holding her just as tightly. "What are you doing here?" He glanced up, spotting Lucy and Iron-Tail as well. "Divines, don't tell me they got you too..."
"No, we're alive!" she said, and rubbed tears from her eyes. "We came to stop Alduin! And we brought the Dragonborn with us!"
"Dragonborn?"
"I remember you now!" Emmet gasped. "You were at Helgen..."
"And I remember you too," Denny told him. "You've come a long way. You hardly seemed more than a boy back then."
Emmet gave him a sheepish smile. "It does feel like it was a lifetime ago..."
Lucy finally stepped forward to hug Denny as well. "We've missed you badly," she spoke softly.
"The Knight?" he asked. She gave a wet laugh.
"Gods, there's so much I wish I could tell you," she said. "He's still alive too." She frowned. "But why are you wandering out here? I thought for sure you'd be granted entry to the Hall of Valor."
"I would if I could find it," he sighed. "No one's been able to find their way through this mist; I've run into many as lost as I am. I think Alduin placed it as a snare, so he can more easily hunt the souls trapped within." Kitty hissed her fury, ears flat against her skull.
"Not for much longer," she vowed.
"We'll help you find the way," Emmet promised. "I can Shout the path clear."
Denny gave him a weary smile. "And hopefully we can rescue others along the way. Very few last long in this mist."
"I'm not surprised ye be one of the few who has," Iron-Tail finally spoke. "Rather glad of it, too. I shudder to think of the fate that's befallen the rest of our fallen brothers and sisters..."
"You really don't want to know," Denny muttered darkly in agreement.
They continued down the path, Emmet continuing to Shout it clear as they progressed. The others filled Denny in on all he'd missed since his execution. The scout fell into stunned silence after a while.
"That's... a lot to take in," he eventually murmured. "I think what surprises me the most though is that the Thalmor actually found someone worse than Sirius."
"Half as competent and twice as mean," Lucy agreed.
They did manage to rescue a few spirits from the fog as they continued through the valley, and eventually they came to a whale bone bridge that led to the Hall of Valor, with a giant of a man standing guard on their end of it.
"What brings you, wayfarers grim, to wander here in Sovngarde, souls-end, Shor's gift to honored dead?"
"Whoa, who are you?" Emmet gasped.
"I am Tsun, shield-thane to Shor. The Whalebone Bridge he bade me guard and winnow all those souls whose heroic end sent them here, to Shor's lofty hall where welcome, well earned, awaits those I judge fit to join that fellowship of honor."
"And I thought you could be hard to understand sometimes," Lucy murmured to Iron-Tail. "That's an awful lot of words just to say 'I'm Tsun and I'm the gatekeeper to the Hall of Valor'." Tsun stared impassively at her. "We pursue Alduin, the World Eater. Is that something you can help us with?"
"A fateful errand," the guard spoke. "No few have chafed to face the Worm since first he set his soul-snare here at Sovngarde's threshold. But Shor restrained our wrathful onslaught- perhaps, deep counselled, your doom he foresaw."
"Doom?" Emmet echoed nervously.
"I'll take that as a 'no'," Lucy huffed. "Alright. We seek entrance to the Hall of Valor."
"No shades are you, as usually here passes, but living, you dare the land of the dead. By what right do you request entry?"
"By right of birth. Emmet is Dragonborn, and I and our two companions are Master Builders, descended from Temu himself. May we enter?"
"Living or dead, by decree of Shor, none may pass this perilous bridge 'til I judge them worthy by the warrior's test."
"Really?" Lucy huffed. "Do you have any idea what we went through just to get here? We're the ones who sent Alduin running here with his tail between his legs in the first place! Then we had to get the General to agree to a truce so Jarl Balgruuf would help us trap a dragon, and then we had to fight that dragon to lure him into the trap and convince him to help us, then we had to fight through all of Skuldafn just to get to Sovngarde, and then fight with Alduin's soul snare just to have you stop us and tell us we have to fight even more to 'prove our worth'! What more do you want from us?!"
Tsun seemed surprised by her outburst, but did not answer.
As it turned out, he didn't need to.
"You don't need to worry about getting into the Hall," a familiar voice drawled. "You've got all the help you need right here."
YOU ARE READING
Murphy's Law
Fanfiction[Skyrim Crossover] As if Skyrim wasn't already hectic enough, with its inhabitants fighting both the Aldmeri Dominion and the Empire. Now there's dragons, too, and Emmet finds himself unwittingly roped into the whole mess. What else could go wrong?
