Today was strange.

  I mean, it started out normal enough, but Valdimar's been quiet since that courier found us, and he's hardly laughed. Even his smile looks a little weak.

  Well, we woke up bright and early, had breakfast, then left the Magic Fire Spider Lab, and followed the path toward Markarth.

  The path wound between tall stones, and not far up it we heard explosions, and could smell fire and smoke.

  There were two mages battling it out at the fork in the road. The fire mage won, then turned on us.

  I mean, I was just going to let her be, but she wanted a fight, so she got one! Got herself killed, but she wouldn't listen to me when I told her to back off, so… Too bad, I guess.

  We kept following the trail, and saw a mostly-ruined stone tower just a bit to our left. It looked like the perfect place for a bandit den, so we went to check it out.

  And then I saw the smoke. I thought the smoke was coming from the tower, but it was coming from a patch of charred earth in front of it. There, on the ground, was the smoldering body of a person. I shuffled back as soon as I could smell it, and the others shielded me. Lydia crept forward to see if it was a victim of a dragon or that mage.

  Dragon fire. And I'm glad we crept in to avoid alerting whoever might've been in the tower.

  There was a small ruin in the middle of the clearing, and Septim trotted forward to peer around a rock. He backed up towards me, growling softly, and put himself in between me and what he saw.

  We all tiptoed forward, and peeked around the rubble.

  It was a dragon, and it was curled up, asleep.

  I know the others thought I was crazy, but it looked… It was pretty! I mean, yes, it was a dragon, and it was huge, but it was beautiful. It was one of those powerful frost types, the ones with the white scales. Seeing it sort of up close and actually having a minute to look at it, I saw that its scales have a sort of rainbow sheen to them. It was like a jewel!

  I whispered to the others what I thought, and while Valdimar and Erandur called me crazy, Lydia agreed with me. She said its spikes looked like icicles to her.

  Yes, that's it! It was like someone dropped a moonstone in pile of icicles.

  Behind it was a Dragon Wall, and I was glad we had a good bit of distance between us. I hate it when I get too close during a fight, and I'm SURE I wouldn't have been able to concentrate for this one if that chanting was filling my head!

  I don't know what woke it up, maybe it was just done with its nap, but it got up, stretched, then roared before taking to the sky.

  Yeah, it saw us or smelled us or something.

  Luckily, most of us can use fire magic, or have a staff that can! I made sure to down a potion of Frost Resistance, then summoned my Flame Atronach and started throwing Firebolts.

  Then I shouted that terrible shout at it. I don't know why I did, I wasn't too bad off, but... It just came out of my mouth. The dragon tried to fly away and circle around to deliver another ice storm on our heads, but instead, it looked like it got tired, and fell to the ground! It slid, and almost crashed right into me! I managed to jump out of the way, and we finally managed to slay it before it got up enough to fight us again.

  I was pretty weak from the Frost magic still, and had to lean on Septim while the dragon's soul rushed into me.

  Once I'd gotten my head back on, I headed for the Wall.

  Valdimar followed behind me, and made sure I didn't fall. I didn't need it, though. There was a white light around my eyes, he said, and my arms felt... Lighter, almost like I could fly.

  Much better than the last one!

  There was a chest nearby, as there usually is, and in it we found some Dwemer armor! It took some shuffling and I had to toss some cheap fur armor, but I'm glad we managed to even things out to where we could carry it. We got more than a few septims for that.

  After that, I went to the tower. There was a dead body, burnt, in the doorway. I stepped back, and Lydia and Erandur volunteered to go in and see what they could find. They found a chest, but it was unlocked, and they also found a magicka potion up top. The chest had some iron weapons in there, but at least we had more potions and gold!

  We were practically staggering with all we were carrying, so we left the dragon lair and headed towards Markarth. We didn't get far until we heard more explosions, and saw a gout of flame burst from behind a rock. We peeked over, and saw a Vigilant fighting a Flame Atronach near some fallen Dwemer pillars.

  He was clutching at his arm and staggered a bit, but managed to get out of the way of the explosion as the Atronach died. We ran to help him, and Erandur called him Brother.

  He went to work on healing the man, while I took the fire salts from the body.

  I don't know why, but I felt like I had to tell him about what happened to Vigilant Tyranus. I asked if he knew him, and he said that he did. He was actually on his way to Markarth to check in on him.

  I told him what happened, but I left out the part where he tried to kill me. Instead, I said that even though we'd volunteered to help him, it was all a horrible trap, and that he died protecting me from Molag Bal.

  He was sad to hear what happened, but happy to know that his brother died in service of Stendarr.

  Yeah, I let him have that. I just told him that we didn't know who to go to, and it's not like the guards were any help. He said that he'd arrange for a group to go in and retrieve the body, and see if they could cleanse the house of evil.

  I wished him luck, and he left, going away from Markarth, but probably towards… Well, wherever the Vigilants go now that their Hall is gone.

  Turns out, Markarth was just down the hill we were on. Well, the farm outside of it was, at least. We were soon back in the city, and went straight to Arnleif and Sons to hand over the statue of Dibella to Lisbet.

  She was VERY happy to have it back, and gave us 1500 septims for the job!

  Nice.

  We also walked out with a nice pile of coins from trading all the armor we looted, too.

  It was still early, and we were close to getting all the fire salts we needed for Balimund, so I asked if anyone knew where there was an alchemist. Erandur said he knew where one might be, so we headed towards a small doorway sunk into the rock on the far side of town. It's sort of off to the side, and a bit hidden. You might miss it if you weren't looking for it.

  It's called The Hag's Cure, and Erandur laughed when he read the name. He went in first and loudly said, "The Hag's Cure? I see no hags here!"

  There were two women in the shop, a young one around my age, and an old woman who I would call a hag.

  But you know, in a respectful way.

  Her name is Bothela, and she's from the Reach. She squinted hard at Erandur, then smiled when he pulled his hood back.

  She gestured for him to come over for a hug and said, "Kaz, you ashy bastard! Where've you been?"

  Erandur laughed, and gave her a big hug. He told her that his name was Erandur, now, and that he'd joined the Order of Mara.

  She squinted at him again and said, "Molag's balls, you did!"

  She said he looked like he was doing well, and Erandur introduced us all to his old friend. They chatted while I looked over her wares, and spoke with her assistant, Muiri, for a bit. She's in training to take over when Bothela retires, but given how spry the old lady looks, that might not be for a while!

  I bought a few things, and Bothela asked Erandur if he would do a favor for her, for old times' sake. She needed him to deliver a certain potion that they developed together years ago to Raerek, the Jarl's steward. He knew the one!

  Erandur laughed and said of course, he'd be happy to deliver it. "Just like old times," he said.

  So, she handed him a small green vial and we set off for Understone Keep.

  On the way there, Erandur explained that her place used to be called The Maiden's Cure. The name was either ironic or appropriate, considering what her most popular potions are for! He held up the bottle and said it's called "The Stallion's Potion."

  I didn't even think before I said, "I know that one!"

  Erandur just smirked before he said he "figured as much," and Valdimar couldn't help a knowing laugh. I couldn't see Lydia's face, but she did that little cough she does when she blushes over something.

  I mean, it's nothing to be ashamed of, and given my old line of work of course I've seen it before! I told them how Dru used to keep a few on her in case she thought I'd need more time looting a place.

  I asked how they met, but we got to the Keep before Erandur could tell us. He did later, though.

  Anyway, we made our delivery, and Raerek paid us well for not only our trouble, but our "discretion", too.

  Then, we went down to Calcelmo's lab to ask him about the piece of Aetherium, and find out where his museum was. I hadn't noticed anything like that while walking around Markarth.

  Calcelmo was in his lab, happily humming to himself as he worked. Aicantar, his nephew, thanked us for helping him. He said he'd never seen the old man so happy over something that wasn't about the Dwemer!

  There was another man there as well, looking over some parts. He was concentrating on his work, so we didn't bother him.

  Calcelmo was intrigued by the Aetherium, but he couldn't tell us anything about it that Valdimar didn't already know. He did caution us against looking for the forge, but he was thrilled that we were interested in his museum. He apologized for not coming to give us a full tour of the place, but he had a lot of work to finish before he had dinner with Faleen.

  He started to talk a bit about what he was working on, but I stopped paying attention when he got too technical with it. Valdimar said he understood, and that we should be all right on our own!

  Calcelmo said the museum was to the right of the main door, as soon as we come into the keep.

  So, we went to the museum and spent the rest of the afternoon there. There were some guards milling about, and they looked bored to tears. They were honestly surprised that anyone had come in!

  One of the first displays we came to was a case of Dwemer weapons. There was a mace in there and Valdimar gestured to the flanges on the head. He said that the beveling on the edges was something you only saw on authentic ones made by the Dwemer, and not on copies made today.

  Erandur was confused. His Dwemer mace (it's hanging on a plaque back home right now) has beveling like that.

  Valdimar was shocked. Erandur didn't know that his mace was an original! It was the one thing he'd taken with him when he left his home for Nightcaller Temple. It was a family heirloom, but he didn't think it was that old. As far as he knew, his parents came to Skyrim from Morrowind with the tribes escaping the Blight in the Ashlands.

  Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon.

  I didn't understand what that had to do with anything, and Valdimar said that the Great Houses prized their Dwemer and Ebony weapons, and antiques especially.

  Everyone knows that Ashlanders aren't part of any Great House. I asked why he would have a weapon from one.

  Erandur confessed that he didn't know if his parents were Ashlanders or not. He had his last name taken from him along with his first, along with any mention of other family.

  Valdimar said that he knew some of the other houses had been very close with the Dwemer, back when the Dwemer were still around. Maybe he was from one of those?

  Erandur just shrugged, and said that must be the case. Lydia asked if he wanted to learn more, and he said he'd made peace with the fact that he'd never know his family name well over a century ago. He was a mer of Skyrim, and had no need for a Great House.

  He has the Temple and he has us, and that's more than he'd ever hoped for.

  Yes, he did that Thing he does sometimes when he smiles, with that warmth that lights up a room.

  Valdimar clapped him on the back, and asked if we wanted him to give us a tour.

  Erandur pointed out that we'd never been here before, and Valdimar said that he wouldn't let that stop him!

  We let him lead the way, and he gave us a GREAT tour, explaining all the details and pointing out interesting things. There was a display of Dwemer booby traps, including some that we hadn't seen, so he told us what they were and how they worked. He'd heard of them from explorers, and seen drawings of them in his books.

  I'm glad that we had Valdimar showing us around. I have a feeling that Calcelmo would get too technical, or just go on and on about the boring parts. He's excited about the Dwemer like Valdimar, but Valdimar has a knack for stories and making you just as excited as he is about things!

  Even the handful of guards that were patrolling the place started to listen in. One said that he'd been working there for over a year, and never heard even half of the things Valdimar told us!

  We were all asking him questions, and by the Nine, I heard him say something I've never heard anyone who called themselves a "scholar" say.

  He said, "I don't know."

  I ran across a lot of those types in my old job, and they'd make something up before they'd admit to not knowing anything, but Valdimar said it a lot! He didn't act like he had the answers for everything in there, and even said that he knew what things were, but not what they were for or how they worked. He said he'd had to do more studying to figure them out.

  Now, I didn't get much schooling, but I do know that people who think they know everything don't bother learning anything, and people who know they got a lot to learn never stop doing it.

  Maybe that's the difference between a scholar and a student?

  Anyway, it was close to dinnertime by then, and things were starting to hurt. I know I hadn't fully recovered from the other day's fight, and if I was feeling it, the others probably were, too. I suggested that we go to the Inn and have a nice soak before we ate, and the others said that sounded like a great idea.

  While we relaxed, Erandur told us how he knew Bothela. They'd met in a skooma den about fifty years ago and started talking alchemy. She'd been there looking to buy some as an ingredient, and he was seeing how people liked a new blend he'd put together.

  They got along like they'd known each other for years, and started working together almost immediately! At first he just supplied her with hard-to-find or outright illegal ingredients for her more expensive potions, but eventually they started running experiments together. She even taught him some Reach techniques!

  Erandur said that he'd earn money by making deliveries for her when he was between gangs, and she knew she could trust him with the more "sensitive" jobs.

  Valdimar asked about the potions they came up with, and that got a laugh. He said that Bothela was "the artist" of the two, and was amazing at coming up with creative ways of preparing or combining things that he'd always been taught would never work. And yet, they did!

  But the potions needed testing, and given his "lifestyle" at the time, well… He had lots of opportunities to try things out.

  We all cackled, and Valdimar made a crack about the Stallion Potion needing "rigorous testing"!

  Erandur grinned smugly before he said, "Well, I've never used that one, but my partners usually ended up needing it."

  And then he WINKED at him!

  Not to be crude, but I think Valdimar's lucky he was sitting in soapy water. You could almost see the thoughts leave his head, and we all ended up laughing.

  I hope we end up joking like that again soon.

  Things got weird after the bath.

  Once we were clean and feeling better, we went up to the bar to order dinner. Klepr turned to a man sitting nearby and told him that the bath was open. The man looked up from his drink, towards us and said, "It's you!"

  I asked what he wanted with me, and he said, "Not you, him!" Then he walked up to Valdimar, said he was a hard man to pin down, and handed him a letter.

  The paper was dark blue, and had two seals on it. One was in silver wax with an eye symbol pressed into it, and the other was in blue and silver wax, mixed together. It was triangular, with something I couldn't quite make out in the middle. There was a word in Daedric script under the seals, written in white ink.

  Valdimar looked surprised, then excused himself to go read it.

  The courier said that he'd been trying to chase us down since we left Riften! We'd taken so many detours and left the roads so often he kept losing us!

  Following us couldn't have been easy! He was lucky I agreed to get the statue for Lisbet. He said that he'd probably walked through the gates not long after we left! He decided to wait and see if we came back after overhearing from Lisbet that "those adventurers" had agreed to help her retrieve a shipment of hers.

  I bought him a drink and gave him a tip for his trouble on top of that. He thanked me, then went to go take a bath.

  Once the courier was gone, Valdimar rejoined us, looking serious. He said that he'd been summoned back to the College of Winterhold by the Arch-Mage.

  I asked if he was in trouble, and he said he didn't think he was. We hadn't done anything particularly awful. The Arch-Mage probably just heard that he was with the Dragonborn, and wanted to know what was going on.

  At least, that was the best we could come up with. But while we all tried to guess, Valdimar was quiet, and staring into his mead. He kept himself busy with picking at his dinner and downing his drinks.

  He did show us the letter, though. It said, "Valdimar, please return to Winterhold as soon as you get this letter. - Savos Aren"

  It was written in Dunmeri, in white ink. He translated for Lydia and me.

  I touched the letter, and I could feel a strange… Thrum coming from it.

  Valdimar explained that was the seal. The triangular seal had simply become unstuck from the paper and lifted, rather than breaking like the round one with the eye. Valdimar peeled the magic seal off the paper, then snapped it in two. There was a a small spark of light, and then he handed me the pieces of wax. They felt like normal, everyday wax to me, and that weird feeling was gone.

  It was a simple enchantment, he said. Now that the seal was broken, the magic was released. The Arch-Mage would know that it'd been opened.

  Lydia pointed out that it wasn't a very good seal. It hadn't broken when he opened the letter! Valdimar explained that was because the wax was from Morrowind. The weather here in Skyrim was such that the wax was prone to lifting before it broke, so the receiver had to know to break it by hand, or else the sender wouldn't know that it'd been opened.

  Hence the double seal. The enchanted one was the Arch-Mage's personal one, and the other was a plain College one to keep it safe.

  Good to know.

  Valdimar apologized for derailing our work for Mara yet again, but Erandur just shrugged. She's a goddess. She knew we'd succeeded from his prayers, and had probably already sent a vision to Dinya. We'd still go back to tell her, of course, but she could wait.

  I said I was interested in visiting the College. I'm still not great at magic. Maybe I can sit in on some lessons while he's meeting with the Arch-Mage?

  Valdimar shrugged, and went back to drinking. I got this out to write, and after a little while he said he was tired. It was a long way to Winterhold, and we would need our sleep.

  He left without saying goodnight.

  We all know that something big happened in Winterhold. Had he been expelled like Erandur was from the Bard's College?

  I can't picture it, but then again, who knows? If you met Erandur now, you'd have no idea about his past.

  We couldn't come up with anything that made sense, so I just kept on writing .

  And now I'm done. That was our day.

  I just hope that it's nothing too terrible. Does he have a Spirit Wound, too? Is it tied there, like Helgen is with me?

  We'll find out when we get there, I guess.

  We're back home in Windstad tonight. It's not very late, so I'm taking some time to rest and write before dinner.

  Gods, do I need it.

  I still felt tired after I woke up. It was sunrise, far too early for me, but I couldn't get back to sleep. I didn't sleep well, either, so I got up and got dressed to go eat something and have a cup of terrible Nord coffee.

  I wasn't the only one who couldn't rest. Valdimar was already having breakfast at the bar when I came out with Septim, and we were joined by Erandur and Lydia not long after. The others usually get up early, but I couldn't stop yawning!

  So, I decided to take the carriage to Solitude, and no one argued. I figured I'd get to sleep more on the road.

  Valdimar looked like he hadn't slept well either, last night or in the cart, if he napped at all.

  He was trying to keep things light, I can tell, but his smile was tight and even his laugh sounded a bit forced.

  Asking him questions about which Dwemer ruin he wanted to visit first perked him up a bit. It helped that our driver, Kibell, was curious about our plans, so we showed him the Aetherium and let Valdimar do that talking.

  I napped here and there during the ride, and so did the others. The weather was sunny, and we got to Solitude a bit before noon.

  We went to the Blue Palace first so I could have the rooms made up for the children. I also put in some alchemy and enchanting stations, and I had him fix up the patio, too.

  Falk said it would take a few days, but he'd had the place cleaned up and the other rooms I'd requested redone.

  I was eager to get a look at it, so we walked over to the house once I'd paid for everything.

  It looks great! I knew it just needed some cleaning and a bit more light. I'm glad for the big windows; it's nice and bright in there, now.

  As we were looking the place over, Lydia said that we'd need to gather more funds before we adopted the kids. I asked what she meant, and she started doing her numbers thing. I admit, I could only follow about half of it, so I told her I got the picture. It's not like we didn't have a lot to do! We have all these alchemy ingredients to return, along with Saarthal, and plenty of other things we can look into. Not to mention seeing what Delphine needs us to do.

  -/-/-/-/-/-

  He finally told us.

  I had a feeling it was something like that.

  Poor guy. I hope he'll be okay when we get to Winterhold.

  Anyway, we left Solitude after that, and headed home. Snow started to fall once we got out of the city, and the water was ice cold! I almost didn't make it across this time. I'm glad I decided to cross on the far side of the arch. That little camp is still set up under the overhang, and we were able to light the fire and dry off a bit before we kept going.

  We were soon back here, and I set to getting everything put away that we hadn't sold - Things like pelts and ores and such - while the others started to make dinner and get things ready for tomorrow.

  We spoke about what we'd be doing during dinner. It was decided that we'd head to Dawnstar, then take the road to Winterhold.

  We asked Valdimar if he had any idea how long the trip might take, but he just shrugged. He said that depended on us, really. He explained it was colder than Windhelm there, so we'd be wise to take plenty of firewood and torches.

  I'd found another copy of Wolfskin while we were clearing out that Forsworn cave, and I handed it to Erandur. He thanked me, and flipped through the book, muttering to himself.

  I've never seen anyone else learn a spell before. It's really interesting! The letters start to glow, and then the book just sort of vanishes and a light swirls around your head. Normally my vision goes all sorts of bright and colorful, and I can't really see what happens. I just know that the book's gone when I'm done.

  It got too quiet after that, and I could tell it was getting to Valdimar. He wasn't feeling great, and he knew that we could tell, and that we didn't know what to say. He was shifting in his seat and bouncing his leg so much I could feel it through the floor.

  Finally, he sighed, and asked if we'd start acting normal if he told us why he didn't want to go to Winterhold.

  Lydia actually threw her hands up and said, "By the wolves, PLEASE! I can't stand it!"

  Valdimar laughed for real at that, and asked for some alto wine before he went on.

  Yeah, the same wine he said his friend used to drink.

  Erandur was surprised, but he poured Valdimar a cup before refilling his own. He asked why, since Valdimar was normally a mead man.

  Valdimar stared into his drink and said that he had a friend who used to drink it all the time. It was his favorite wine.

  "Had?" asked Erandur. His voice was soft, and we all knew what was coming.

  Valdimar nodded, took a drink, and said that he was dead.

  He explained that he lost a lot of friends at the College. It wasn't unusual for students to die while they were learning. After all, we'd seen what could happen when you mishandle a spell. He lost a few classmates to that, just like that poor mage on the beach.

  Others died from alchemy experiments, or unstable enchantments or jealous rivals. There were lots of really talented mages who died simply because Skyrim is a rough place to live in, and most of them aren't from here. Where mistakes or pride didn't kill them, the landscape did.

  He said he had lots of good memories of Winterhold, though. Until he joined up with us, it was the best time of his life! But it was also the worst. He lost his best friend, and that was just too much for him. He hasn't been back to Winterhold since.

  He blinked a lot and sniffed a few times while he spoke. I didn't know what to do. Erandur said, "I'm sorry," and put his arm around Valdimar's shoulder

  Valdimar just shrugged and said it wasn't his fault. Erandur replied that he knew "that particular hurt" all too well.

  Lydia, Divines bless her, just asked if Erandur was talking about his friend who killed himself rather than become a vampire.

  We were too stunned to say anything for a second, then I started in on her for being so thoughtless. She said she just wanted to make sure, there was nothing wrong with it, but UGH she needs to leave the talking to me!

  I was threatening to gag her and then we stopped when we both heard Erandur laugh. He said it was all right, and that Yes, he was talking about Girhan.

  I still think Girhan was more than just a "friend" of his.

  There was quiet again for a minute, and I asked if Valdimar had any new ideas about why the Arch-Mage would be calling him back.

  He said he still wasn't able to think of a reason, but he was as eager to find out as he was to stay as far away from the place as he could.

  Lydia asked if he had a Spirit Wound, and he said that he didn't think he did. Just a lot of bad memories is all. That place was soaked in the blood of mages, and he wasn't looking forward to setting foot there again.

  I suggested that he just not go, but he said he couldn't do that. The Arch-Mage (Valdimar referred to him as "Savos") had signed off without his title, so this was most likely a personal matter.

  What kind of personal matter was a mystery, but he didn't like sitting around wondering about what-if's. There was no use to it, he said, unless you wanted to stay up all night tossing and turning, or worry so much you got careless about things.

  The best thing to do was to just go there and get it over with.

  He drained his cup after that and said he was going outside to chop us some firewood. He said we were going to need it!

  Once he left, we all sort of looked at each other. I know I didn't know what to say, and I think the others didn't, either.

  Finally, Erandur got up and said that he was going downstairs to do his prayers, and asked me to see about making some potions for Frost resistance. I told him that was a good idea, and Lydia volunteered to check over our gear, and maybe add extra insulation where she could.

  So, I made potions until Valdimar came back in, with an armload of firewood. He put a fire's worth of logs each by our packs, then put the rest with the logs we have in here for the hearth.

  He didn't really say anything, just nodded approvingly at what we were doing, before he said he was feeling tired from all the chopping, and bid us goodnight.

  Speaking of, it's starting to get a bit late for me. I don't want to be on the road in the weather when it starts to get dark, so we'll need to leave here early. Hopefully, by this time tomorrow, we'll be somewhere with a solid roof and a warm fire.

  I've been waiting for the right time to put this in the narrative for MONTHS. We're finally going to get into Valdimar's backstory! He's the friend who knows your favorite flavors of everything and the story about how you got the scar on your knee when you were 8, but you only know surface-level information about until you get a whiff of lore and realize that DAMN there's A LOT hiding behind that smile.

  Obviously the narrative parts aren't canon, but I like to connect NPCs together and make everything fit better. I also like to have good reasons for going from point A to point B that aren't, "Well, I don't feel like doing the main quest yet, let's do some of these side quests." Giving Valdimar a connection to the College of Winterhold and, by extention, Savos Aren makes sense.

  Erandur's got so much horrible stuff in his past, I want to show that it wasn't all bloodshed and nightmares. He would have made some friends along the way, and it makes sense that a few of them are still alive.If you're familiar with TES lore, you probably picked up some extra hints, too. ^_~