41 A fateful encounter

(A little before Helgen's destruction)

The dungeons were a cold wet dark place with the only warmth coming from a couple of burning torches, and the hate burning in the torturer's eyes. A stormcloak man had already been taken back into a different room from the rest of the prisoners. His screams indicated he was still alive at least.

The group in the large cell was a motely group. It was mostly comprised of recently captured stormcloaks with a few various thieves and murderers mixed in. One person seemed to stick out though. A stormcloak man with disheveled blond hair, a dirty beard, and scarred face was the first to approach the outlier.

"My name is Ralof. I don't know why you are stuck in here with us, but I can tell you are not like the other criminals here. It may do you more harm than good, but if you stick with us stormcloaks, we will keep those scum off you. It was probably because of us you were caught anyways."

"Thanks for the offer. I am not really sure why I am even in here. I remember falling asleep in my bedroll and next thing I know I am in that wagon with you. What exactly are the stormcloaks though? Some kind of bandit group?"

The question seemed to surprise the man based off his raised eyebrows.

"You must have been away from home a long time if you haven't heard of us. The stormcloaks are the True sons and daughters of Skyrim. We fight for independence from an Empire more interested in kissing Thalmor boots than justice for its people. Our leader is Ulfric Stormcloak, the true High King of Skyrim."

She nodded along with his words. It made sense to her. Calling yourself stormcloaks because your leader's last name was Stormcloak seemed a good way to come up with a name. It was pretty catchy and intimidating as well. Much better sounding than rebel or insurrectionist. Ralof continued talking before she said anything.

"We were but one of many distractions for our King. He should be almost to Windhelm by now, especially with Wuunferth by his side. With Ulfric back at his seat of power, our ranks will swell as the True Nords rally to his cause. If we get out of here, you should come join our fight for freedom. If we do not get out of here, I pray Sovngarde awaits us."

He patted her back reassuringly as he went back closer to his comrades. They were making a physical barrier separating her from the rest of the crowd. She was one of the few females in the cage. There were a couple stormcloak women as well, but all the rest were men. The stormcloaks had her thanks for what they were doing. Men with nothing left to lose are not always in the best frame of mind, especially when locked in cages with women.

She was pulled from her though as an imperial solider approached the cell and came closer to her while looking a little confused.

"You there. Step forward. Who are you?"

The man was giving her an appraising look, as if she did not belong with the rest of the rabble. Standing up the woman approached him. Before anything more could be said, a rumbling was felt. Dirt fell from the ceiling as everyone began looking around. Soon enough, a loud roar resounded through the prison as the walls began to shake and more dirt and even stone fell from the ceiling. A crashing sound was heard as a large part of the ceiling collapsed on the opposite side of the cell, crushing the criminals in that part of the cage. It also served the purpose of ripping part of the cell bars open. The imperial looked on in shock and fear as the stormcloaks were now free to escape.

The imperial did not even fully draw his sword before a stone bashed against his head. Ralof was quick to rally the stormcloaks and charge the remaining prison guard. He did not last long at all. The imperials had mistakenly left the prisoners' possessions in the same room since they were not done processing them. This meant the now freed prisoners were armed with their own weapons and armor.

Ralof carried what he believed to be the woman's possessions to her. There was not much. A backpack with survival gear and clothes, an ax for firewood, a couple daggers, a leather cuirass, and her trusty hunting bow.

"You can stay here or come with us as we escape. Your choice. May Talos guide us out of this place."

With that he dropped the items and began forming up his men break out. She was not bothered by his attitude. He had more important people to worry about instead of some random stranger he just met.

She could stay here and hope the walls didn't collapse on her and then try persuading the gaurds she was innocent, or she could follow the stormcloaks to freedom. It was not a hard choice. She wanted to get out and see what was going on here. She had been hiding from the world for far too long.

She geared up and followed after Ralof. The next room was mostly destroyed, besides one small cell. The stormcloaks had already made it through this room as evidenced by the dead imperials. She was about to leave the room when she saw some movement from the small cell. A person inside slowly stood up.

He must have been one of the best-looking men she had ever seen in her life. He was an Altmer, tall with an angular face and skin the color of sunshine. He had silky golden hair down to his shoulders and just a faint shadow of facial hair along his jaw. He was standing in only some ripped linen pants which did wonders showing off his chiseled body. He pointed at the dead imperial.

"Do you mind helping a fellow wrongfully imprisoned person out? I can't quite reach the keys on his belt, and the others showed no sign of wanting to help me."

She hesitated for a moment. Someone locked up in a lone cell were not usually trustworthy. After a bit of deliberation, she decided to free the man. He had no weapons on him, and if he was a mage, she could put an arrow between his eyes before he could finish casting at this distance. It did not take her long to free him after coming to her decision.

"Thank you, my fair lady. I am glad to be out of there. I do think it is time we got out of here though. Sticking together would be our best course of action. There is no promise the stormcloaks will actually help us out of here much less the imperials. Best we independents stick together before this place falls down on our heads. We can always part ways later."

The woman took a quick second to think, but the crumbling ceiling and faint roars persuaded her to simply agree with the man and get out as fast as possible. She could find out more about this unknown later.

"Lucky for you I know my way around here. The guards were too good to do any of the cleaning themselves. They got amusement out of an Altmer working for them, I think. My name's Solimon by the way. What's yours?"

The man started going through a different door than the one the stormcloaks rushed out. She decided to follow the good-looking elf where he was leading her, but she was ready to shoot him at a moment's notice. Hopefully they would get out of this dungeon soon. She didn't want to take any risks of the place falling on top of her.

"Mirajane. Now let's get out of here."

----

She was pale even by Nord standards. Her hair was as white as snow and cascaded down her back. It was held in place by a simple tie to keep it out of her face. Her eyes were a very pale blue, bordering on white. Her ears occasionally poked out of her hair as she moved. If one truly looked, they would notice a very slight point indicating the potential for elven heritage somewhere along her family line. The way she moved was a sight to behold. Her movements were nearly silent, and she seemed to slink along as graceful as a sabre cat and just as ready to pounce. A born hunter.

Solimon knew this was the woman he was supposed to find once he saw her. He was interested to see how she would handle the trials to come. He would be right by her side if he had anything to say about it.

---

(Back with who really matters in this story)

The town was beginning to panic. The roars and tremors had finally stopped not too long ago. Helgen was only a short distance away from Riverwood, less than a day walking. It was supposed to be a major defensible area for the region. If such a place was attacked, what was keeping Riverwood safe?

Rumors abounded about the cause. The giant silhouette of a flying creature in the distance gave fire to these rumors. Rictus's personal favorite was how the dwarves were returning up out of the ground and using their new monstrous creations to take revenge on the people of Skyrim. It wasn't a very good theory, but it was fun. Rictus's casual words about the situation had a lot more impact than he would have thought.

"Ah so Alduin has finally shown up. It took longer than I expected but sooner than I hoped for. I guess things will get a little more hectic now. At least I can tell Ken I told him so. I am a little sad I didn't visit Helgen before it was destroyed. There was some mead with juniper berries I really wanted to try."

His words reached a little farther than he had intended. All his companions stared at him in horror while a few of the sawmill workers ran off to share what Rictus had claimed. One of the younger mages with Reysera was the first to speak up.

"Why does that name sound so familiar?"

Roluth was quick to speak up before anyone else could answer.

"Alduin. Also known as the First Dragon and the World Eater. He used to rule over all Skyrim long ago. Prophesy states he will be the harbinger of the apocalypse."

The young Breton scoffed, but the serious looks of the rest of the Nords in the group made him quiet down. None of them were joking. Rictus broke the uneasy silence.

"Well, it seems we will have a lot of training over the coming days to hit flying targets. Dragons will be returning and attacking once again. I am sure the dragonborn will be able to handle the big stuff, but there will be plenty of other dragons to go around. Maybe I will get a skull for my throne? Nah too risky. Alduin could always show up and try and revive it which would be terrible. Hmm…maybe I could figure out a way to trap the soul…an altered soul gem maybe…."

A crowd had been growing around him without notice during this time. His little speech and mutterings shocked them greatly. Dragons were the monsters of many a Nord's bedtime story. Someone who casually talked about hunting them was usually a bit crazy. His mention of the dragonborn did kindle some hope in the people. All the Nords knew the prophesy of the dragonborn. Maybe things were not as bleak as they had originally thought. A woman's voice drew Rictus's thoughts away from plans to trap a dragon soul.

"Are you serious about the dragons returning and Helgen being destroyed?"

Rictus looked up to see Gerdur talking to him. She was the owner of the lumber mill and the de facto leader of the village.

"Of course. That is not something to joke around about."

She nodded her head at his no nonsense answer. She seemed to be thinking about something but was unsure how to say it.

"I know you are a powerful mage. Is there anything you can do to help protect the town? We would be willing to pay you for it. I naturally will be sending someone to confirm your claims. We also need to send word to the Jarl as soon as possible. There are not enough guards here as it is much less in the case of a dragon attack."

Rictus gave her request some thought. There was nothing he could really make for the town to defeat a dragon. Their best bet would be running, hiding, or praying a dragon doesn't show up. He could do something for the hiding and rebuilding if a dragon did attack though.

"I do have an idea. The best I can do is make an underground evacuation area. If a dragon showed up, the townspeople could run down there for safety. It wouldn't be a bad idea to store some supplies down their either. Best case scenario is a dragon never attacks here and the space can just turn into a town storage area. It will not be pretty though because I do not have a lot of time to waste."

Everyone sprang into action. Gerdur began issuing orders to people. Riders were sent out towards both Helgen and Whiterun. The mill went into overdrive as more wood was being processed to shore up the underground area. People were rushing off to tell those not present all that happened. Most were told to try and go back to their daily routines since there was nothing they could do. The blacksmith was already getting orders for arrowheads and other weapons.

Rictus made his way over away from the river to find a good spot to start excavating. He convinced Miruma and the mages to return to base as quickly as possible and inform everyone what has happened. Roluth would stay as his guard, and they would return as soon as the bunker was completed. His followers did not want to leave, but they understood that every moment counted in these situations. Miruma knew that Ken would send a group to guard Rictus as soon as she informed him anyways so he would not be without more guards for long if she went fast enough.

The bunker would be very simple. A couple winding passageways with a large empty space should work for now. A few well-placed small holes lead to the surface to allow some air circulation. The winding passageways were to try and make any attacks on the space more difficult. If a dragon breathed fire down here, the switchbacks should help diffuse the attacks before it made it to the main area. Each passageway would have 2 stone wheels which could be moved to cover them in case of dragon attack as well. They wouldn't stop people very easily since they just rolled into place but would work against a breath attack.

The area was fairly deep down in order to not be compromised if something heavy landed on top of it. Rictus made sure to compact the stone around all the walls to increase structural integrity and placed thick pillars ever so often for additional support. The people of Riverwood could come in once he was done and place wooden support beams if he missed any spots. He made a few smaller rooms off the main area which had little stone shelves which could be used as storage spaces or even beds if the need arose. One small room in the very back had a few deep holes dug down in the ground. It was a better option than having to go to the bathroom on the floor at least.

One may wonder what happened to all the excess materials from this little mining escapade. There was a simple solution to that. Rictus's storage area was more than capable of containing the materials not used in compacting the walls and pillars. He was even able to get a little bit of iron ore and some gems out of it. Keeping large amounts of materials in storage was very practical. If there ever was a situation where he could not manipulate the materials around him, he could now summon rocks and metal from storage to use instead. It also kept his dream for an ultimate attack alive. He wanted to one day be able to open many portals to his storage and pull-out weapons and materials from it to shoot out at people with his telekinesis. It was still a long way off, but he thought it could happen some day in the future.

It had taken a few hours for Rictus to finish up making everything for the bunker. It wasn't perfect, but it should do the trick. He thought it should be able to hold a decent chunk of the town, as long as they didn't care about little details like personal space. It had 4 rooms for storage or sleeping and 1 for the bathroom. It was very crude, but it was better than any of the townspeople expected. He was getting really good with this earth manipulation spell.

When he exited the bunker, Gerdur was waiting with a basket of food for him. Seems he had missed lunch time. When they started to discuss payment, Rictus declined any payment in gold. It wasn't very valuable to him. He did negotiate for materials, wood specifically. He had them agree to make the payment in processed wood to be delivered to white river watch. His people could use some more furniture not made of stone or metal. It was too bad there were so many waterfalls between his base and here or else the wood would be delivered extremely quickly down the river. He could potentially carve some levies to get around the waterfalls, but that could wait for now.

Rictus decided to take a moment to just relax for a moment. He was tired from all the mana expenditure and thought he deserved a little break while he ate some food. He lucked out in getting some still warm sweet rolls in his picnic basket. He went over to the river and created a stone bench and table on a raised platform to better take in the natural beauty around him. Riverwood really was a beautiful town.

A couple people had tried to come ask him more questions, but Roluth scared them off. It was peaceful listening to the running water. After almost an hour, Roluth finally asked a question on his mind.

"Why are we still here? You said we need to hurry back, but you are not making any effort to return despite claiming we would leave once we finished here."

Rictus could only smile looking at his guard. The man seemed tensed up to an unhealthy degree. Seems the pressure of a potential dragon invasion and end of the world had the man on edge for some reason.

"There is something, more like someone I suppose, I was hoping to see before we left. We can go wait by the entrance to the town though for Ken to send some riders for us. They should be here before dark."

The pair went and awkwardly stood right in the middle of the road to the town. The townspeople did not really understand what they were doing, but mages were strange people. Even though it had only been one night, they knew Rictus was a pleasant person despite some peculiarities and his slightly intimidating aura.

Eventually, a group of 10 mounted warriors were hurrying down the road. It was some of the Restored come to take Rictus on home. They had to of pushed their mounts extremely hard to make it here so fast, Rictus would punish them if any of the horses were injured in their haste. Rictus and Roluth mounted up, but they did not depart yet as Rictus claimed he still needed to wait.

It was sunset when a commotion was heard from the other side of town. A group of dirty people were seen making their way to the town with the riders Gerdur sent out escorting them. At the front of the group of refugees were two people who stuck out like a Thalmor at a stormcloak rally.

One was a Altmer who even Rictus admitted was handsome. There was no need for him not to wear a shirt though. That was just showing off. Rictus could see the magical power radiating from him already. He was obviously immensely talented in Conjuration, enough that Rictus could tell from here how much he was influenced by that school of magic. It was obvious what that meant.

The other was a woman who had mostly Nordic features. Her paleness was unusual though. She gave off similar vibes to Aela which made her seem like a hunter. There was also a strange energy about her which Rictus could just barely make out with his magical sight, but she burned brightly when he used detect life.

The Restored with Rictus figured they would go investigate this crowd of people, but they were wrong. Rictus took a moment longer to look over these two conspicuous people before turning his head and leading his people away. Roluth was the last one to leave and made sure to memorize the appearance of the 2 people his leader waited so long to see. They had to be important in some way yet to be seen.

----

The group of riders leaving town went mostly unnoticed by the town. Only the pale woman seemed to have sensed someone watching her and Solimon.

The watcher was surrounded by mounted warriors at the other side of town. Had her instincts not been so finely tuned or eyesight less sharp, she would have missed it entirely. There was something intimidating about that man. He was covered in a dark robe which shimmered in patterns as the setting sun light danced around it. Even mounted, she could tell he was a large man. While her companion was muscular and fit, this man was bulky. His robes did a poor job of hiding his bulging muscles. He was obviously a very physically powerful warrior especially with the giant axe on his back. His dark hair was shorter than most men as it was only a couple inches long. He had a strong looking face which was more blocky than angular. A dark goatee was prominent on his face with a shadow of facial hair along his slightly squared chin. Stormy grey eyes which occasionally reflected the sun like a cat stared back at her. Where Solimon was charming and beautiful like a sunrise, their observer had a rugged attractiveness and solidness like a mountain.

She had no idea who this man could be and what he was doing here. The intensity of his gaze was intimidating despite her feeling no malice in it. It was strange he was leaving instead of investigating the crowd, almost like he already knew what was going on. She looked to one of the riders near her.

"Who was that group of riders leaving town?"

The man seemed a little surprised.

"Riders? I don't know anything about no riders besides those like me who went to Whiterun. The only other people here not from Riverwood recently were a group of mages who showed up yesterday, but they should be gone by now. Good people, really know how to party, but a bit strange if you ask me."

The woman shook her head at the answer or lack thereof. Those riders did not look like mages. It wasn't important right now anyways. There were bigger worries right now.

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[A/N]: Ah so we had a little more insight into the dragonborn and what went down in Helgen. Apparently, Ulfic was not captured at all and no surprise salvation from execution needed to happen. Seems like others are starting to screw with how things normally go.

I do hope you all are not too disappointed in the dragonborn. I ended up going with the normal trope of a female dragonborn hunter who is not one of the Skilled. I at first wanted to have 3 dragonborns from each skill archetype but figured that would be too much despite it being the original plan. Then I was only going to do one of the Skilled as the dragonborn, but after talking with a couple people about the story, I came to the conclusion that would be too powerful. I eventually ended on the idea of keeping the dragonborn as a native though. I also didn't think akatosh would like some other soul hijacking someone he had blessed.

If you hate this decision, well that sucks. Don't worry too much about it though. Rictus will be busy with his own adventures instead of following around the dragonborn.

I also just finished up a chapter about him returning to winterhold that I am personally really excited to share, next week of course. The little plot arc there has been really fun to write so far, and it was not at all what I had originally thought of doing. I got a partial inspiration for it based off what someone put into the comments which I hadn't considered before. I am looking forward to see how it all turns out and what people think about it.