Dragonborn Saga-Chapter 660: Side Adventure
Chapter 660: Side Adventure
A/n: One Last Adventure before we finish this Volume! Guess where we are going?
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To Riften, Jon rode an eight-legged horse and passed the land. Teleporting through the land he could have used but this would take from him the thrill of the journey. He was already near the Rift and decided to go down the 7000 Steps of the Snow Tower.
He stopped by each village and town, bathed in rivers, ate from hunting and gathering, fought off trolls and bears, and laid beside a Spriggan Grove watching the wonderful nature and speaking with the spirits.
The Spriggans of the Rift never attacked him for he was wearing the Amulet of Kyne. He even passed by the shack of his old hunting mentor and offered a few gifts to the old man.
Soon after, he found himself facing a young maiden in dark robes. The girl was crying and shaking as beneath her was a woman with a knife in her chest.
An interesting encounter, Jon thought, but he still chose to see how it unfolds from coverage.
"Don't worry." Said a voice Jon didn't see its owner, "You don't need to feel down for her. We must press forward."
The voice was Khajiiti feminine and awfully familiar to Jon, who was about to activate his detection magic and inspect the identity of the speaker. However, the speaker walked into his view and he could see them wearing the Armor of the Dare Corps.
Was it a Trooper on a job or something?
The Trooper knelt beside the young maiden and removed her helmet. There, Jon could see the spotless and perfectly white fur of a Khajiit.
"Akara?" Jon narrowed his eyes.
Akara was an old friend of Jon and the rest who were raised with him in the orphanage under Nurina's care. Jon was quite fond of the Khajiit girl back then.
"Stand up." Akara gave a hand to the girl who clung to her while shaking and the two headed towards the mountain.
Jon followed closely behind them and he quickly inspected the dead body they left behind. The stab was sloppy but it seemed that it came out from where the victim least expected judging by the fact that the struggle seemed very minimal.
"What have you gotten yourself involved in, Akara?" Jon narrowed his eyes.
Akara has a tail for trouble as the Khajiit like to say. Jon has once caught her red-handed managing a drug operation with Ysolda which always reminded him that the two girls are very comfortable acting in the grey morals zone. While he dragged them back to Winterhold and forced them into a military drill as punishment, Ysolda served her time before deciding to work for him as a trader while Akara decided to stay as a mercenary.
Back to the present, Jon didn't feel like sticking his nose in other people's business but the moment a trail of bodies start appearing, he wouldn't be able to ignore it until it proves that it is worth ignoring.
He kept his magic on high alert and snuck towards the mountain where he found an old structure known as the Darklight Tower.
"I remember this place." Jon pondered, "Back in the day, I practiced magic nearby and some witches tried to capture me. If I am not mistaken, Nurina stunned them on the ground and took them away for a friendly word."
She massacred them.
But from the corpse found and the trail where Akara and the young woman took, it seemed that the witches were back.
"Darklight Tower? Witches? So it is that quest." Jon remembered something from the back of his mind.
[A/n: while I pride myself on having thousands of hours under my belt in Skyrim, I have discovered this quest very recently and played it only twice. It is called Repentance.]
When players visit this area in the game, they run into a young witch called Illia who tells that her mother is a witch who is about to perform a horrible ritual and Illia was tasked with finding her a human sacrifice.
The young witch rebels against her mother and tries to stop the ritual with the help of the player, meaning that she had to put her mother down.
A fucked up situation indeed.
Jon walked into the tower and saw that some bodies had been dropped as the fight started. Frost spells and arrows were all over the place as the fight seemed to have advanced up the tower. Jon conjured himself some undead and walked up the tower while whistling.
It took him a minute where he could finally hear the sound of fighting. There were two Hagravens blocking the road ahead and the two girls were having a tough time against them.
The Hags teleported around and used Fireball spells to force Akara around the place while the witch Illia was barely defending with her wards.
"Skeles, fire!"
Jon gave the undead an order and they rushed at the entrance of the room and lined up. With their bows, a volley of arrows struck the first Hagraven.
There was no escaping the surprise attack since the undead were too many. The first Hagraven died with arrows sticking out from every inch of its body.
The second Hagraven was taken by the appearance of the Skeletons which opened the chance for Akara to strike the Hagraven's arm and cut it off.
"Nice." Jon said, "Now go for the head."
Akara maneuvered her way out of the Hagraven's attack range and when she was in her blind spot, all it took was one clean cut.
The head flew away and the Hagraven's body started to move based on lingering neural signals before completely falling to the ground.
"Nice footwork." Jon commented as he was standing at the door of the chamber between his undead.
"Who're you?" The young witch aimed her spells at him but seeing that Akara wasn't hostile, she kept looking between the two.
"Jon?" Akara narrowed her eyes, "You followed this one here?"
"I was just playing around in my old spot." Jon said, "Once I saw you, I thought about coming to say hello."
"You two…" The young witch was about to ask but she wasn't sure which words to use.
"Rivals." "Friends."
Akara and Jon replied at the same time which made it seem awkward how they answered.
"I guess you don't need a hand then." Jon said.
"Just… stay." Akara said awkwardly, "This one was just surprised to see you but your help is welcome."
"Alright." Jon said and turned to the young witch, "Name is Jon, a wandering wizard and an avid hunter."
"Illia." The young witch said, "I am… from around here."
"I see. Witchcraft practice… I don't really discriminate." Jon said, being open-minded.
"There is a Witch up in this tower, Jon. We need to defeat her." Akara said, "This one has agreed to help young Illia."
"What's in it for me?" Jon asked.
"Anything in this tower you want is yours." Illia said.
"Yikes!" Jon looked around the dirty witch coven and felt shivers, "I'll do it for the good of the realm then."
"Akara knew you were chivalrous." Akara said and pointed towards the door, "Shall we?"
"We shall."
***
And the witch lied dead by the spell of her daughter.
It wasn't pleasing how things turned out to be. A mother sends her daughter to find a human sacrifice, the mother intends to use it to become a hagraven, the mother is killed by the rebelling daughter and the involved mercenaries.
Illia was left to mourn and bury her mother and she promised to find proper payment for Jon and Akara. Jon dismissed it and told her that if she wants to employ her talents for good, she better go to the College of Winterhold and give her a recommendation letter.
"Always doing good deeds, aren't you?" Akara commented as they watched Illia take a carriage from Riften to Winterhold.
"If my good deeds can erase my bad ones, won't I pass on as a happy man?" Jon said.
"But Akara thought you were some sort of immortal now." She said.
"All men must die." Jon said, "I just want my life to be remembered in the hearts of those whom I served."
"Alright, you slick." Akara snorted knowing how deep Jon could be sometimes, "This one will be taking her leave as well."
"Where to?" Jon asked but Akara seemed hesitant to reply.
"Settling old scores." She said.
"Ah!" Jon remembered.
Long ago, Akara was orphaned due to a bandit attack. Jon knew of this and offered her help many times but she wasn't willing to accept it.
She wanted her revenge to be exacted by her own hands.
"I know you don't want my help but here." Jon handed out a staff to Akara.
It was something that he looted from the Darklight Tower. A staff that appeared in the game called the Staff of Hag's Wrath.
"You still good with the magic you learned?" Jon asked.
"Not really." Akara replied.
"This will help." Jon put it in her hands, "If you need assistance, come to find me. I'll be staying in Riften for a couple of days."
"Thank you." Akara nodded with a smile.
She knew that he would offer to help as much as he can but she really needed to do this on her own.
Jon watched Akara head off into the woods and couldn't help but feel a bit worried. He would have to check on her after his business here is done.
Speaking of which, Jon started hearing rumors in Riften about Maven Black-Briar falling to illness.
After what Envy did to her, it is a surprise that she still survived.
But this is as far as she is allowed to go. Jon headed into Riften with the intent to kill.
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