Northbound Pilgrimage III

Chapter LV - Butting Heads

Author's Note:

Happy Halloween, those of you who celebrate it :)

I hope you're all ready for the witches, ghouls and vampires. Some of which you might even find here ;)

Enjoy the chapter <3

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"Thank you for doing this, Brelyna," Aeyrin gave the Dunmer a careful smile.

They headed out of the cavern immediately and went straight towards Rorikstead. Brelyna was in the area. They could spot her from a distance by the constant flashes of light from her detection spell. She was with a group of guards, but when they explained the situation, she went with the two of them without a question.

"Yeah. Sure," she nodded. She had been very silent the entire time. It was uncomfortable.

Aeyrin couldn't help herself. She had to say something.

"Uhm... about what happened..."

"Save it," Brelyna immediately interrupted her. "Don't do this. Seriously," she growled.

Well... message received. Aeyrin instantly deflated. Though that made Brelyna talk again, surprisingly enough.

"Look, I'm not mad at you. I know it wasn't your fault. I know that. But I just... I don't wanna talk about it, alright? I'm not mad but I can't help that I feel... it shouldn't have happened like that. So please, just drop it. I just need some distance. But it's... it's alright."

That was understandable. Of course she would be bitter, even if rationally she knew Aeyrin was not at fault. She couldn't blame her for her emotions after losing her closest friend after all.

"Alright. I'm sorry," Aeyrin nodded. "Thank you for helping. I hope Dexion is alright." That was a safer topic.

"I don't know. This shit sounds fishy. Nobody from the temple actually went and looked for him. They were waiting for the guards or me to do it. You know how paranoid they are. They didn't want to show up anywhere around any authorities like this."

"Yeah we figured," Bishop nodded. He kept watching the ground for fresh footprints. There was a large group they were following. It was a good sign. "But who the fuck even knew he was here?"

"I don't know, but I'm pretty sure he wasn't subtle about it," Brelyna sighed. "He probably left his information with the census at the border. And anyone could have tracked him from that, I guess. The question is... who would want to?"

Right. Who needed a Moth Priest for their mission? Was it possible that someone else was working on getting rid of the dragons in secret? Did someone else find an Elder Scroll that needed to be read at the Throat?

But... nobody would actually get to the Throat, right? Not to talk to Paarthurnax.

Maybe they had other sources of information.

This was concerning. But Aeyrin couldn't help but be a little hopeful about this.

Could there actually be some more help out there? Maybe they had more stuff figured out. Maybe they knew how to learn the Shout. Or transcribe it somehow.

"There!" Brelyna suddenly called out and pointed in the distance. "Uuuh... wow."

"What? 'Wow' what?" Bishop scowled at her. There was nothing he could see in the distance.

"It's... shit. It's far. But there's a lot of people. I can only see tiny specks though. They're really far and off the road, but it's that way," she pointed again in the same direction, somewhere off the road towards the south east.