Interlude - Ranmir

"Finally that bastard is leaving the town and what a giving mess he made." thought Ranmir,as he watched his nemesis kisses the love of his life goodbye. Then he watches as his sister join in on the group hug and kiss him goodbye.

He watches his lover, the jarl's wife hand him a bag of for for his journey. He is boiling with rage looking at the scene, but is happy that she will be all his now that the bastard is going.

Ranmir thinks about the day he first heard about the bastard, eavesdropping on his sister and crush as she described in all it's glorious details of how she lost her virginity.

He remembers Isabella starting to spend less time with their group and more time with the wizard boy. he remembers how his sister son followed Isabella's steps, right into that bastards arms.

he had a big fight with his sister, arguing that the wizards only being trouble, pointing all around me at the rubble of one great city. She just called me ignorant and suddenly, the group of Isabella, Brina and Ranmir became just Ranmir.

While Ranmir became alone, another group formed in Winterhold , of Isabella, Brina and the Witchboy Barry (Ambarys). After isolating me form my own friends and family, that bastard tried to take pity on me, trying to include me in some of his games.

"I knew better. the witch boy was only doing this to show others how much superior he was than me." thought Ranmir as he thought about the power that Ambarys commands.

After repeatedly failing to include Ranmir in their schemes, Brina came to him and gifted him a bracelet. It was made of braided chains of gold and silver. Brina said that even if they have become distant, each other are still only family they have left.

She told him that these were chains from outer parents wedding amulets , gold from their father's and silver from their mothers. She had braided this with another, red yarn into a pair of matching bracelets, one for him and one for her.

" This is to remind you of were you come from. and that you are not alone, because i came from the same place" is what she said. it was a reunion of epic proportions as they both cried and hugged each other.

Next day, Ranmir begane my day like every other. He was ready to mope around all day, but was feeling better because of his reunion with his sister the day before. He still wasn't going to give the witch-boy any satisfaction by playing with them, but atleast he could go get a drink at the bar or something.

As he was getting drunk at the travren , his bad mood inevitably brought him into a fight, reminding him of why he started moping at home instead of coming here more often. his opponent at the time was much bigger than his 16 year old self, so it was no wonder that he had no chance.

When he was down i heard " heill ! young one, well fought". I thought the guy was mocking me so i left the bar, slamming the door behind me. As I crossed the street to go to my home , i heard the same voice from a bush near my home " why'd you leave, drinking after a fight is nearly as important as the fight itself".

Ranmir got scared of the fierce looking warrior who was looking at him in confusion. "who are you, why are you following me" asked Ranmir. " I asked first " said the older warrior. "what ! you still want to make fun of me you bastard" yelled Ranmir as he charged the older warrior. the old warrior easily dodged the drunken charge and Ranmir trips into a bush.

Feeling down on himself, he just layed in the bush, not wanting to face the struggle of getting up. he almost started crying when he heard the old man get near him. "Alright, i guess we didn't start on the best foot, let's pretend any of that never happened " said the old man as he sat down beside Ranmir.

" Heill, you can call me 'Coach', I used to be there head trainer for warriors of Winterhold before the collapse." Ranmir started laughing " the city collapsed 80 years ago old man, you look like you're barely 40".

Coach laughed with him. He stood up and offered Ranmir a hand to stand up. Ranmir took the hand, but his hand passed right through. His mind ran at full speed to come to a terrifying conclusion.

Ranmir yelled "Ghost! Ghost! Ghost!" and ran inside his home and tucked himself for sleep, believing all that happened to be a drunken hallucination.

Ranmir come out of his flashback as he sees the bastard witch boy disappear at the distance. He feels somebody grasp his shoulder and looks back and smiles at Coach, his mentor, his best friend and his ancestral ghost.

Coach has helped guide him since that day on. They had found out early in the friendship that Ranmir could only see the ghost because of the bracelet. Coach touched the bracelet and told Ranmir that he had a wedding amulets with a chain just like this, but longer.

It belonged in him family for generations and that he band gifted the pair to his son on his wedding. They concluded that Ranmir's father must have been Coach's descendent.

Coach was just happy that somehow after 80 years of wandering around as invisible and inaudible ghost, Coach could finally interact with someone, it being his defendant was just the cherry on the top.

Ranmir looks at his sister and Isabella hugging and consoling their pets. It was a full pack of I've wolves that the witch boy and the girls had trained to pull sledges. they were very fond of the witch boy and his pet goat.

Seeing the wolfs always reminds him about the strength of the witch boy. these wolves used to treat his whole body like a chew toy when they played and the bastard didn't even flinch. The forces that should have shredded any human being couldn't even put a scratch on that bastard.

he sees the jarl and his wife consoling each other as if they had just lost a relative. my blood boils as I look at the jarl, and his mind takes him to how the jarl replaced the old one.

Somehow the witch-boy got into an argument with the previous jarl Korir about magic and the college. the witch-boy accused Korir and his family for holding back Winterhold and not doing enough to rebuild it.

when the jarl argued back, the witch-boy asked all the nearby people on the streets if they want to stay in winter hold and 90% said no. the jarl asked them why they are here, they say that they don't have the resources to leave.

The witch-boy pulled the final trigger when he said " Every one of your subjects dreams of leaving this town. their defination of being successful in life is to leave your hold".

That angered the Jarl a mighty bit. he ordered his soldiers to arrest the witch-boy for causing public disruption and defemation of the noble house.

This triggered the witch boy and he cited some archaic Nordic law about how a jarl can be challenged by his people if he is hu l unjust. Coach has later explained to him that it was more a religious law than a legal law.

The jarl said as much to the witch boy but the people then started supporting the witch boy and started calling the jarl out for not following their religious traditions. The jarl had enough when he started hearing people call him incompetent.

A dual was set up according to traditions. the witch-boy needed a noble house to sponsor him to initiate the challenge and he got it in lord Kraldar.

On one side was jarl Korir, his housekarl and 10 of his best guards. on the other side stood the witch boy "Ambarys" and lord Kraldar. lord Kraldar's housekarl had begged to let him participate, but the lord had put his foot down. calling it unnecessary. the lord's newly wed wife, Annabel, was openly cheering for her husband's team

The dual was set up as one-on-one fights and if a warrior gives up, next in the team takes their place [like Pokemon battles].

lord Kraldar never had to step a foot in the ring. it was a massacre. Barry alone took down 12 veteran warriors without breaking a sweat. the jarl accused the witch boy of he cheating. claiming that mortal can be this though.

The weapons used in the dual were blunted training weapons but everybody knew of Barry's abnormal strength and his magical prowess.

Barry teased the jarl that he wasn't using magic but the korrir was welcome to check in any way he wants. further more, of he believed disparity to be so great then he was welcome to use a sharp steel sword instead of training one for a duel.

Jarl korrir finally admitted defeat before passing down the jarldom to lord Kraldar. Kraldar and his family kept korrir's status as a noble of winterfell but he was far removed from the line of succession.

This also in turn led to him meeting the new love of his life, thinks Ranmir as he looks at jarl's wife, who seems to have everybody wrapped around her fingers.

he always had a crush on Isabella's mother, Annabel, ever since they were young. Whenever he fantasised about him and Isabella starting a family, she always liked mature like her mom.

He was so distressed to find out that Annabel was also fucking the witch boy and that Isabella herself helped set up her widowed mother. he was even more surprised when after becoming jarl, Kraldar a widower himself married Annabel in a grand wedding.

A few days after their wedding they called for me. by this point, with help from coach, i had already proven myself a promising warrior so i thought I was going to be offered a job among the guards.

what i was actually offered was so much more. when i entered the lord's chamber, i found the lord and lady of the hold to be naked and cuddling in the lord's lounge. i quickly turned and was about to leave when the lord ordered me to stay.

They explained their circumstances to me. Jarl Kraldar is easily in his 80th year and has no hiers. He had to marry so soon after the coronation because three jarldom needs an hier.

the jarl explains that although he won't start giving up any time soon, he can't just rely on his weak seed anymore. the jarl further says that they already asked witch boy to help them, but he denied, saying he wasn't ready to be a father.

the jarl further states how my mother was his distant cousin, so I was the next best option. That day i got a job as the lady's personal guard and had a thresome with the lord and the lady of the hold. At some point coach even joined, but what they don't know won't hurt them.