The Call of Gold

“What do you mean, you can’t take that as payment?” I groaned. “It’s solid gold!”

“I told you,” the man complained. “I don’t buy things that are clearly stolen.”

I acted offended, slamming my hands on the counter, causing a pile of septims to fall over, and roll across the counter. “How dare you! Do I really look like a thief?”

“I don’t know about that,” he said, “but you definitely don’t look like a priestess, that’s for sure.”

“Fine,” I said. “Take my septims, and I’ll take my honorable business elsewhere.”

He accepted the coins I handed to him, and gave me the lovely little dress and riding boots I’d picked out. I resolutely threw them over my shoulder, turned around and sashayed away, before he’d realized I paid him with his own coin.

It had been a while since I’d been ashore this long. I had to admit, hiding ‘in plain sight’ from the Imperial navy by sailing up the Niben had not been my greatest idea. Trying to pass off as honest traders while stealing everything not nailed down in the Waterfront wasn’t that smart. Running the ship aground, and fleeing up north was pretty damn stupid. But, I was never one to dwell on the past. Now, I was sitting by a small fire at the bank of what was supposedly the White River, in my new dress, enjoying a bottle of mead a distracted bosmer had left in his windowsill. I’d expected to hate Skyrim, with it’s reputation as a frozen wasteland, but the cold was alright, and the people were gullible enough. I had a sword, a dress that was short enough to be a distraction, a pair of high riding boots, a warm cloak, soms food in a pack with a bedroll and a bunch of gold to fence. So far, I wasn’t doing that bad. If I was truly going to get back on my feet however, I needed a plan.

I tried to remember Skyrim on my old map of Tamriel, but of course, even if I remembered all of its details, I was sure it didn’t show every damn river on the continent. No, my best bet was to keep following the river, further away from Riverwood, where its inhabitants had likely discovered half of them had been robbed blind. I suspected they wouldn’t try to find me at night, if they would try at all. I emptied the bottle of mead, curled up inside my bedroll, and got some well-deserved sleep.

The sun hadn’t fully risen over the enormous mountain peak — which was called “The Mouth of Skyrim or something — when I was woken up by a rustling nearby. I quietly grasped the hilt of my sword and kept my eyes closed, waiting for the rustling to get closer. When I was sure it was close enough, I whipped out the sword, and squinted against the sunlight. The startled deer skipped away to safety.

I sighed and got ready for a long day of hiking. Of course, I would’ve preferred to travel down river by boat, but the sheer number of waterfalls would have made that impossible. No wonder Riverwood was such a backwater place. After walking for hours, I heard a couple of men speaking, and I jumped into the bushes to avoid any awkward conversations.

“…of all the places a redguard could hide, I wouldn’t have chosen Skyrim.”

Fuck.

“What other place is there? High Rock and Cyrodiil have eyes everywhere, and no self-respecting redguard is going to go to those bloody elves.”

I laid down on my stomach, trying to see without being seen.

“So, what does she look like?”

“Sounded like she’s pretty enough, kind of a waste if you ask me.”

Those weren’t Imperial boots, more like…

“Don’t forget you’re talking about a traitor.”

“Treachery doesn’t make one hard on the eyes…”

What in Oblivion were the Alik’r doing in Skyrim? For a moment, I thought they were talking about me, but I’m not a traitor. A thief, a pirate and a con artist, sure. But no traitor. I pitied the woman to get on the bad side of the desert warriors.

When I was absolutely sure they’d left into the direction of Riverwood, I continued my journey. The mountains gave way to endless tundras, and suddenly I saw a high rising city on a lone hill, right in the middle of it. Golden farms, merchant carts and trader caravans, all ripe for the taking. Azara was back, and she had a new world to conquer.