literature

Blood of Skyrim: Part 8

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“Aghh!”  Simon cried out as a cloud of frost seemed to engulf him.

Onmund and Danielle sprang into action and ran forward to unleash their spells on the creature.  Simon fell to the ground on his knees, desperately struggling to wipe all of the ice off of his face as the two Adept mages fought the Ice Wraith.  Onmund struck it repeatedly with Lightning Bolt as Danielle unleashed a stream of Flames every time it flew by her.  Soon, the creature exploded, sending ice crystals flying everywhere, and Onmund remembered to turn around and shield his face as the crystals flew at him.  Now with everything quiet, Onmund and Danielle ran to Simon and helped him off the ground.  His lips, eyebrows, and the tip of his nose were covered with frost and Danielle quickly cast a light healing spell to melt it off of him, and Simon busily wiped away the melted ice off of his face.

“Are you all right?”  Onmund asked him.

“Yeah, yeah, I’m all right,” Simon sputtered, finally opening his eyes.  “Is it dead?”

“It’s dead,” he confirmed.

Simon coughed, and then he cursed, “Damn, I thought I was going to go blind!”

“The Ice Wraith’s frost must’ve overwhelmed you,” Danielle remarked.  “But you’re okay now.”

“Thank you,” Simon muttered.

“Well, we did it,” Onmund declared.  “We killed the Ice Wraith!”

Simon just grunted at him, but then his expression changed and he exclaimed, “Hey, look!  A Standing Stone!”

Onmund was about to follow him towards the stone when Danielle grabbed him and whispered urgently into his ear, “Onmund…we should tell Galmar that he killed the Ice Wraith.  Or rather, that we all did.”

“Do you think he’ll believe us?”  Onmund asked.

“He will,” she insisted.  Then with pleading eyes, she added, “I don’t want to stay in Windhelm any longer than we have to.”

Onmund nodded, remembering the uncomfortable skinny beds and the noisy nightly parties upstairs.  “Okay.”

She then followed him to where Simon was standing, in front of the stone.  “Hey, Onmund, do you understand this symbol?  I want to make sure I know what kind of powers this stone has before I take it.”

Onmund walked up to the tall and skinny stone and examined it.  There was a hole in the middle of it, and just above it was a single symbol- the ancient Nordic word for “paralysis.”  He had never seen or heard of this particular stone, but he knew about these Standing Stones in general.  When he was just honing his skills as a mage under his mentor, Frodrig, he was advised to take the power of the Mage Stone near Riverwood, which allowed him to learn spells faster.  Danielle had also taken the power of the same stone when she had first come to Skyrim.  He turned to Simon and said, “It means ‘paralysis.’  So I’m betting that you can gain the power to paralyze an opponent.”

Simon raised up his arm to activate the stone, and Onmund immediately jumped in with, “Or it might actually paralyze you if you touch it.”

At first, Simon just looked at him uncertainly and Onmund just wanted to tell him to forget about it and head back to the boat, but then he raised his arm up again and proceeded to stick it through the hole.  He watched in amazement as the stone began glowing, and a beam of light came down from above and touched the stone.  Simon began to glow, too, and Onmund hoped for his sake that it wouldn’t paralyze him.  After a few seconds, both Simon and the stone went dark, and he took his arm out of the hole, examining it.

“Well?”  Onmund asked, hoping it didn’t have any detrimental effect.

“I heard an incantation being whispered to me, and I felt some kind of power flood into me,” he answered.  “I think I just learned a paralysis spell!”

“Cool!”  Onmund said.

“Any volunteers to try it out?”  he asked, looking at both of them with a mischievous grin.

Onmund prepared to respond with an incredulous reply when Danielle cut in, “You use that spell on me and I will burn your arm off.”

“Ooooh!”  Simon moaned.  “Such hostility!  And I thought you were the nice one.”

“Sorry,” she immediately apologized, looking down at the ground.  She then looked up at Onmund and said, “I guess I’m just very tired.”

“Hmph, I guess we all are,” Simon said, crossing his arms.  “Thanks for saving my ass back there.  I think you two are definitely Stormcloak material.”

“Simon, you’re going to tell them that you killed the Ice Wraith,” Onmund retorted.  “I told you I don’t want any part of this.”

“How nice of you, brother!”  Simon declared with a hint of sarcasm.  “But you want your audience with Ulfric, right?  Let’s say that we all contributed.”

“Whatever,” Danielle huffed.  “Let’s go back to the boat.”

The three mages left the Serpent Stone and walked back down to the water where the boat was.  The ferryman was pleasantly surprised to see that all of them had survived and gladly took them back to the mainland.

They arrived back in Windhelm as it got dark, and they went into the inn, since they thought it was probably too late to report back to Galmar.  Simon went upstairs to eat, and Onmund and Danielle went into their room.  Danielle immediately began changing into her nightshift and he asked her, “You getting ready for bed already?  Don’t you want to eat dinner first?”

“I have a headache for some reason,” she replied, frowning.  “I think I’m just going to go to bed.  If you want to hang around with Simon, you go ahead.”

“I’d rather hang around with you,” he said to her, putting his hands on her shoulders and gently turning her towards him.

With a sigh, she lamented, “Onmund, I haven’t been very pleasant to be around lately, I know.  I guess I’m just depressed.  After leaving the College, and coming here, and then getting into this mess with Simon; it’s been taking a toll on me, and I feel like I just need some rest.”

“Danielle…” he said gently to her, putting a finger under a chin and tilting her head up to look at him.  “You’re always pleasant to be around.”  She managed a small smile, and he continued, “I know you’ve been unhappy since coming here.  It’s been frustrating for me, too.  And I promise you…as soon as I get to talk to Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak about my family, we’re getting out of here.  We’ll go someplace pleasant, wherever you want.  Where do you wanna go?”

She thought for a moment, and then replied, “Whiterun.  I’d like to go to Whiterun.  I have some friends there.  And I know the jarl.  He once said to me…that I’d always be welcome back into his city.  And that I could be first in line to buy a house there.”

“Really?”  he asked.

She nodded.  “It’s expensive, but I bet if we sold some of our ingots and treasures and found some work, we could afford to live there.”

With a smile, he brought her closer to him and kissed her on the forehead.  “That…sounds like a great idea.”

She smiled back at him, and then urged, “You go on upstairs and have fun.  I need to get some sleep.”

He sighed resignedly and answered, “All right.  You sure you don’t want me to bring you anything?  Some food?  Tea?”

“I’m sure,” she insisted.  “I’ll be all right.”

“Okay.  Sleep tight, my love.”  He kissed her one last time before leaving her alone in the room.  He then made his way upstairs, where more people were starting to gather.

“He-ey!”  he heard a voice greet.  He turned towards the sound and saw Simon sitting at a large table with a woman next to him.  He made his way over to them.

“Where’s Danielle?”  Simon asked, as Onmund sat down on the chair next to him.

“Uh…” he started, as he looked at the woman sitting on the other side of Simon.  He stopped short when he recognized the familiar face and busty build; it was the same woman whom he had seen this morning coming out of one of the bedrooms downstairs.  She had long blonde hair, bright blue eyes, and crimson-red lips.  He quickly looked back at Simon and continued, “She went to bed.  She’s not feeling well.”

“Aw, that’s a shame,” Simon remarked.  “I wanted to introduce her to my lady-friend here.”  She gestured towards the woman next to him.  “This is Susanna.”

Onmund looked back at the woman and she smiled.  It wasn’t a warm smile but there wasn’t necessarily anything strange about it either.  But she seemed to narrow her eyes at him.  He now noticed that she had on heavy makeup, and he started to wonder how Simon had found this woman.  “It’s too bad your wife couldn’t stay up,” she remarked, her voice deep and sultry.

“I’ll probably head back downstairs soon,” Onmund replied.  “I’ve had a long day.”

“I heard,” Susanna piped up.  “Simon told me about the Ice Wraiths you killed.  And you didn’t even use any weapons?  How intriguing.”

“No we didn’t use any weapons,” he said.  “Just spells.”  He wondered if Simon had told her the truth about who really killed the Ice Wraith, but decided it didn’t matter.  He was in on the lie, as well, for other reasons.

“Simon here says that he can shoot fire out of his hands,” she declared.  “What can you do?”

As she gazed at him, he saw a seductive gleam in her eye, and it made him slightly uncomfortable.  What is with this woman?  he wondered.  “I…can shoot sparks out of my hands.”

“Onmund’s quite the wizard,” Simon remarked.  “He can do more than he lets on.”

“Interesting,” Susanna purred.  She then stood up.  “Well, what do you two gentlemen like to drink?  I’m thirsty, so I’ll bring you both something, as well.”

“Honningbrew Mead, darling,” Simon answered.

They both then looked at Onmund, who began getting even more uncomfortable.  “Uhh…I’ll have some ale, I guess.”

She nodded and then walked off before he could change his mind, which he was on the brink of doing.  He now no longer felt sure that drinking right now was a good idea.  He was around people he didn’t necessarily trust.

“So what do you think of her?”  Simon asked after she was gone.

“Susanna?”  Onmund questioned.  “Uh, she’s…nice.”

Simon grinned.  “If you only knew…”

“What does that mean?”  he asked.

“Nothing.”  Simon shook his head.  “So…you said that Danielle’s not feeling well?  Is she okay?”

“Yeah, she’ll be all right,” he replied.  At least after I get her out of this city, he knew.  “We’ve both had a really long couple of days.  I mean, we just got here last night.”

“So why did you and her leave the College?”  Simon asked.  “I thought you two liked it there.”

“We did,” he responded.  “But things kind of got…out of hand.”

“How so?”

Giving a sigh, he figured that he had no choice but to tell him the truth.  “If I tell you, will you promise not to tell anybody?  Not even Susanna?”

“Ooh, a juicy secret?  Sure, I’ll promise.”

“You see, I had been keeping a secret from Tolfdir for a really long time,” he began to explain.  “It had all started during the Eye of Magnus Disaster when Danielle and I went to go retrieve the Staff of Magnus from Labyrinthian.  We encountered one of Ancano’s lackeys there by the name of Estormo.”

“I remember hearing about that,” Simon said.  “You said he was killed in the wilderness?”

Onmund shook his head.

“No?”  Simon questioned.

“No,” he answered.  “I did.  I killed him.”

Simon’s eyes went wide.  “You???  You killed…an elf?”

He nodded.  “In self-defense,” he quickly added.  “Estormo attacked me and Danielle first, took the staff from us, and rendered our spells useless.  I did what anyone else in my situation would’ve done.”

“Well, how did you do it if you couldn’t cast any spells?  Did you have any weapons?”

“No.”

“Then…how?”

Onmund just shrugged and held out his hands in front of him.

“You…you did it with your bare hands?”  Simon asked incredulously.

He nodded again.

“Whoa…Onmund…brother…” Putting a hand over his mouth, he started to smile ridiculously.  “I never knew you had it in you!”

“Lemme get one thing straight,” he insisted.  “I am not proud of what I did, okay?”

Simon let out a little chuckle and asked, “But why?  If I were a warrior…hell, if I were Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak, himself, I would say that you are the one of the deadliest and bravest Nords this side of the Velothi Mountains!”

“No,” Onmund protested.  “Don’t say that.  I’m not an elf-killer.  Anyway, you wanna hear the rest of the story or not?”

“Of course.  Go on.”

“So anyway, when I finally told Tolfdir the truth about what really happened to Estormo, he was furious.  He had a talk with me and Danielle, and we kind of got sidetracked, but he ended up wanting to give the staff to the Thalmor to ensure peace with them.  From that experience, I told him that it was a bad idea but he wouldn’t listen to me.  I guess I should’ve stopped while I was ahead, but I kept arguing with him, and he eventually told me that that I was no longer welcome at the College.”

“Oh,” Simon said in surprise.  “So what?  He kicked you and Danielle out?”

“He kicked me out,” he corrected him.  “Danielle quit on her own.  She didn’t want to give the staff to the Thalmor either, but since our opinions didn’t matter to Tolfdir, he went and gave the staff to them anyway.”

“So why did you come here?”  Simon asked.  “Why do you want to talk to Ulfric?  Are you going to ask him to help the College?”

“No,” he answered.  “The audience with Ulfric is for a completely different reason.”

“What’s that?”

“I’d rather not tell you right now.  It’s kind of a private matter.  Maybe next time.”

“Tomorrow I’ll be joining the Stormcloaks and going with them to the front,” Simon said.  “You may never get your chance.”

Onmund sighed, realizing that he was right.  Nonetheless, it was another long story and he knew that Susanna was going to return at any minute, and he really didn’t want her to hear it.  “It’s okay.  It’s really of no importance to you.  Actually, there was something I wanted to ask you before Susanna gets back…”

“What is it?”

“Does your room have a double bed?”

“Yes.  It’s the only room with a double bed.  Why?”

“Can Danielle and I trade you?”

“How many beds does your room have?”

“Two singles.”

“What else will you give me?”

Raising his hands up incredulously, Onmund questioned, “What else do you want?  You don’t need a double bed, anyway!”

“Oh, but I do,” Simon insisted.  “Susanna is very picky.”

“What?!”  Onmund cried, dumbfounded.  “You’re not married to her.  Why does she have to sleep with you in your room?”

“Are you really that naïve, Onmund, that I have to explain it to you?”  Simon inquired annoyedly.

Disgusted, Onmund shook his head and responded, “No, I’m not that naïve.  I just thought you might show some sympathy to me and my wife.”

“I do have sympathy,” Simon said.  “That is why when I check out tomorrow, I’ll tell Elda that I’m giving my room to you.  When I’m gone, you can have the room for as long as you want.”

“Ugh,” he uttered in frustration.  “Okay, forget it.  Danielle and I are not staying in Windhelm past tomorrow, anyway.  As soon as I talk to Ulfric, we’re leaving.”

Just then, Susanna appeared with drinks in hand.  She put the tankards and bottles down in front of the two mages and then sat back down next to Simon.

“Thank you, Susie,” Simon said sweetly.

“Ugh, I told you I hate that name!” she spat, slapping him on the arm.

“Ow!”  Simon cried, and started laughing.  “Sorry, honey.”

“You’re going to get it later,” she scolded.

“Ooh, tell me how,” Simon said in a playful tone.

Onmund suddenly cleared his throat loudly, not wanting this exchange to continue in front of him.  “You know what?  I think I’m starting to get a headache, too.”  He then stood up, picking up the bottle of ale.  “I’ll just take this with me to my room.”

“Leaving already?”  Simon asked.

“Yeah,” he responded.  “I’ll just be heading to bed.  Thank you for the drink, Susanna.  Goodnight, you two.”

“All right, goodnight,” Simon and Susanna told him, and Onmund left them.

He went back downstairs and into his and Danielle’s room.  He then set the bottle down, which he still hadn’t opened, and looked over at Danielle, sleeping soundly in her small bed in the corner.  That Simon, he thought with frustration.  Such a selfish, indulgent bastard.  For but a moment, he thought about moving his bed across the room to join with Danielle’s, but figured it would make too much noise and wake her up, scraping across the floor and everything, so he decided against it.  He couldn’t wait to get out of Windhelm.  I sure hope we get to meet Ulfric tomorrow, he thought.  He began removing his robes and when he was nearly naked, he gazed back at his wife’s sleeping form, and a rogue thought crept into his mind.  They hadn’t made love for three days, and to Onmund, it felt like forever.  It was embarrassing to think about, but he now had an inkling as to why they had both become so irritable.  It wasn’t just Simon and other people making them that way.  He started walking quietly over to her bed, and for a moment, thought about climbing in with her and seeing if he could coax her awake to have a little romp, but then decided against it as he watched her still body sleeping so peacefully.  She really does need her sleep, he knew.  I don’t think she’d be too happy to be woken up right now, even for that.  He then turned around and went back to his bed.  Putting his nightshift on, he climbed into it and stared at the ceiling for a while.  The image of Danielle in the sheer, blue robe she had worn a few days ago threatened to creep into his mind and he tried to force them away.  And then the image of Susanna’s voluptuous breasts threatened to intrude his thoughts, as well, and he tried even harder to force those away.  Fortunately, sleep came to him before his thoughts could get too carried away.
Will Onmund, Danielle, and Simon be able to kill an Ice Wraith and pass Galmar's test? And also, will Onmund finally get his audience with Jarl Ulfric Stormcloak so that he can get help for his family?
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