Lydia and I re-entered Swindler’s Den, armed with our bows and my foreknowledge. This time, the two bandits were dead before they could finish their dialogue about the Alik’r. They still didn’t have much worth looting, so we moved on to the room where the guy was complaining about mead. Unfortunately, since I knew what to expect, I was moving a bit faster and was, in the grand scheme of things, ahead of schedule, which meant the bandits were positioned differently. So when I shot the first guy, not only was he not trying to sit down, but his friend was already nearby and saw him get shot. He ran into the tunnel where we were, and I barely had time to kill him before he got to us. I made a mental note to not assume anything, since I was basically changing the… what would you call it… the line upon which… time… travels, or whatever.
The same was true in the next cavern, where the man was not standing on the platform, but someone was sitting at a table, whom I shot, and then other random bandits came at us, whom I hid from. This differed from the line of shooting from before. One of the bandits ran at me with an axe saying, “You’re as good as dead!” Which made me laugh, though it was an inside joke she would not get, and soon Lydia had killed her. Lydia also wouldn’t know why I found it amusing. But you get it, journal, so that’s all that matters.
A thought struck me – what would happen if I updated my journal, and then the rewind happened? Would I lose that portion of the journal? Or would the journal information remain, requiring me to read it for point of reference? It was an interesting question, though I had no pressing desire to test it, especially since there was no guarantee that such weirdness would happen for me a third time.
In the other room, a bandit called out, “I can take you… where are you?” Yeah, still not going to fall for that one. We once again cleared the room, and I once again looted it. It was a very weird feeling. Lydia stepped in a bear trap and said, “That’s all you’ve got?” I give her points for the creative response. I would have just hollered.
We reached the watery tunnel again, and thinking perhaps my stealth failure last time was due to Lydia and her stompy, unstealthy ways, I turned to her and asked her to wait there. “As you wish, my Thane,” she replied. I don’t think I’ll ever get used to that.
This time I moved even more slowly than last time, making sure my stealth was as stealthy as can be. But as I neared the waterfall, I heard the now-familiar voice say, “Alik’r, hold! You’ve proven your strength, warrior. Let’s avoid any more bloodshed…” Yeah, yeah, heard it before. It was almost like he’d rehearsed it, in case someone came after him.
I ignored him, and stealthily moved through the waterfall, as far from him as possible. I was pretty sure they could all see me, but nobody was attacking me, so that was nice. Deciding there was no point in being sneaky at this point, I went back to get Lydia. “Back already?” she said, I guess figuring I’d still be killing or talking or whatever.
“Follow me,” I said.
She nodded and said, “As you will, my Thane, I will protect you with my life.” I was really starting to think this reward was more than was warranted, but I wasn’t going to argue. We went through the waterfall, skirting the edge, and up the plank to the upper cliff area of the cave where Kematu and his henchmen were milling about. He was clearly waiting to talk to me, but I decided to let him wait, and explored the cave a bit. I found a humongous chest, which I of course opened. In it was a fancy axe, some gold, a potion, and an amulet of some sort, the identity of which I’d have to check on later, as I didn’t have the various divine symbols memorized. I put it on regardless, as I understood they granted blessings of some sort by default, even if you didn’t know who they were. The divines were easygoing like that.
I stole all of their mead, as well as some salmon, which you would think would tick them off, but they didn’t bat an eye. Perhaps because they knew that they could likely just kill me and take it back if they really wanted to. There were… six of them, plus Kematu, versus me and Lydia. Those weren’t good odds, as my, um… previous life could attest. I checked their pockets, but annoyingly, none of them were carrying anything, unless you counted their very curvy, very sharp and deadly blades.
I snuck up behind Kematu, and he had 100 gold on him. “See anything useful?” asked Lydia. I didn’t answer her. Odds are, Kematu would notice if I stole 100 gold from him. I was good at pickpocketing, but not “steal from an Alik’r Warrior while surrounded by a half dozen of his men on high alert” good. Instead I decided to try a different approach, and talk to him.
I tapped him on the shoulder, and he turned around and said, “Stay your hand, warrior!” Sorry, just wanted to get your attention. “It’s no secret why you’re here, you’ve proven your skill in combat. Let us talk a moment, and no one else needs to die.” That sounded reasonable. “I think we can all profit from the situation in which we find ourselves.” Can’t argue with profit. Well, I mean, you can, but there’s no money in it. “My men will not attack you, if you lower your weapons.” Yeah, I already figured that tout, I thought to myself as I looked down at my empty, lowered hands. His men were still brandishing their curvy swords, however.
“Why are you after Saadia?” I asked. I knew her story, but I wanted to hear his version. The truth was often somewhere in between.
“She sold the city out to the Aldmeri Dominion.” What? I hated those guys. “Were it not for her betrayal, Taneth could have held its ground in the war. The other noble houses discovered her betrayal and she fled. They want her brought back alive.” Hmm. Alive seemed reasonable enough. “The resistance against the Dominion is alive and well in Hammerfell, and they want justice.”
I nodded, and we both stood there in awkward silence. Well, awkward for him, perhaps. The familiarity of the awkwardness had become almost comfortable to me. Eventually I shrugged and said, “I’ve been sent here to kill you.”
“Of course, sent here by… what is it she’s calling herself these days?” I told you, it’s Saadia. “Shazra? Saadia?” Yes. I TOLD you it was Saadia. “One of those, correct?” Of COURSE it’s correct, we started this whole conversation with me asking why you were after Saadia, and you knew who I meant. In fact, you seemed to know what was going the moment I got here, so your name-guessing feels contrived. “Did she appeal to your sense of ‘honor’?” And he said this with unmistakeable sarcasm. “Your greed?” Hey! Leave my greed out of this! “A more… base need, perhaps.” Excuse me? “It doesn’t matter.” Then why did you bring it up?
“No doubt she’s convinced you that she’s the victim.” Well, I wasn’t entirely convinced until your current smartass monologue. “But do you know why we pursue her?” Um, off the top of my head I’d guess she sold the city out to the Aldermi Dominion. At least, that’s what you told me less than two minutes ago. I was finding this half of the conversation a bit insulting.
“Saadia told me you’re assassins,” I said, which seemed like the wrong thing to say to assassins. I did, after all, still have that fairly fresh vision of them attacking me and Lydia.
“Assassins?! No, nothing so crass.” I remembered his cohort who said that if I walked in here, I was never coming back out. That seemed in line with assassins to me. “Saadia, as you know her, is wanted by the Noble Houses of Taneth for treason. We were hired to see her returned to Hammerfell for her crimes.” I couldn’t help but notice he wasn’t providing the details of the so-called treason. I also remembered that she’d said she was from House Suda, which perhaps didn’t get along with House Taneth? And I had no firsthand evidence that Taneth itself wasn’t in the pocket of the Aldmeri Dominion. It wouldn’t be the first time a political group lied about their intentions. “You can help us with that,” he added, though I couldn’t remember what I’d be helping them with. Oh, right, returning her to Hammerfell for her alleged crimes. “And make sure no one else gets hurt.” By “no one else,” I wasn’t sure if he meant him or me. Perhaps both.
Wanting more specifics, I asked, “What was her crime?”
He said, “She sold the city out to the Aldmeri Dominion,” okay, this was the exact same line he’d given me before, so I walked away. “Farewell,” he said simply. Wait, so was he going to let us walk away? I tested this theory, and walked until we’d reached the exit of the cave. So… we were free to go, though Kematu and I knew where we stood, presumably. I decided to double-check with Iman, see what she had to say about this new information I’d gotten from Kematu. If she got defensive, I’d know she was lying, maybe.
When we got back to the Bannered Mare, it was two in the morning. The only person still in there was the orphan Lucia, and Hulda the owner, offering warm bed, food and drink. Ignoring her, I went to the side area leading to Iman/Saadia’s upstairs room. “There’s nothing like a good song to lift the spirit in troubled times,” said Lydia, which was followed by total, song-free silence. She was like the bard of non sequiturs.
When we got upstairs, she was asleep, which made sense given the time of night. I searched her drawers – and by that I meant dresser and wardrobe, but also the other definition – to see if she had anything incriminating, but I found nothing noteworthy. Reluctantly, I woke her up.
She didn’t seem surprised at all to see me. In fact, the moment her eyes opened, she said, “Any news of the Alik’r?”
I wanted to tell her, “Yes, I found them, and spoke to Kematu, who has a different story than you claim. Care to shed some light on this whole ‘treason’ rumor?”
But no. That would be too easy and convenient. My mouth simply would not form any such response. All I could do was ask her why they were after her and why she hadn’t gone to the guards. And I already knew the answer to both of those. So instead I left her alone to go back to sleep.
“You should think about staying the night,” said Lydia. I glanced at her out of the corner of my eye self-consciously, as I was in fact thinking about that very thing. But as we re-entered the main area, the local bard was singing his decapitation song again, which I couldn’t stand, for reasons which I think were fairly obvious. We were out the door before he could get to the “head rolled around on the floor” part.
I wandered the streets of Whiterun, Lydia keeping pace behind me, as I contemplated the situation and idly plucked flowers. Who to believe? Saadia/Iman could have acted like she didn’t know what I was talking about, and I’d have never been the wiser. She didn’t have to trust me, or even talk to me. She would have been fine within the walls of Whiterun. Then again, she didn’t know my motives when we first met either, and needed to suss them out. The Alik’r, meanwhile, were acting all sketchy, hanging out in a place called Swindler’s Den, not being allowed in the city, and just generally being overstaffed for a group of people ostensibly out to return a woman to Hammerfell. I didn’t know the first thing about Hammerfell, other than that it was the native country of Redguards.
If I turned Saadia in, and she turned out to be innocent, then I will have sentenced a woman probably to death, despite the Alik’r’s claims. Whereas if she’s not innocent, then the worst-case scenario would be that they send someone else after her, perhaps. On the other hand, if I kill Kematu for just doing his job, isn’t that hypocritical of me, when I am just doing my job? But then, what is my job? What is my goal? What is my purpose?
I decided I was getting a bit too introspective about it, and needed to keep it simple. Who did I like in the scenario? Saadia. Who would I feel badly about if I ended up wronging? Saadia. Who doomed a bunch of bandits to their death by hiding behind a bunch of them? Kematu. Who abandoned one of his people because they got caught? Kematu. I did not care about their politics. What happened in Hammerfell, stays in Hammerfell. If she wants a new life, far be it for me to rob her of it.
But did that mean I had to kill Kematu? After all, he did let me walk away. Though perhaps he was just stunned that I had walked away mid-conversation and didn’t know how to react. I sometimes had that effect on people. Also, he didn’t say they weren’t assassins, just that they were “nothing so crass.” Which just meant that he considered their killing to be above the level of assassin. His hubris alone might warrant his being taken down a peg. Though I wasn’t sure that peg should be “death.” There was also that small detail that he had already killed me once. Even if it didn’t take. I should maybe return the favor.
So Lydia and I trekked back to Swindler’s Den – getting quite the workout, I might add, though I felt no more athletic in the process, which was a shame – and more or less sprinted through the body-strewn caves to the waterfall room where Kematu and the gang were still loitering about.
“Good morning,” said Kematu as I cleared the waterfall. I almost said “I’m here to kill you,” but instead I bit my tongue and kept walking toward the walkway, and he said, “Until next time.” Which, y’know, was weird. But whatever.
To be honest, I wasn’t sure I could even kill him. He was clearly better than me. It would take all of my roguish skill to pull it off. I found the darkest corner I could, sized him up with my bow, and let the arrow find its target. (Which was Kematu, in case you weren’t paying attention.)
What transpired next was, let’s just say chaotic. I didn’t stay hidden for long, thanks to the ridiculous amount of lighting in the cave, but it didn’t matter too much because Lydia opened up a can of housecarl on their Alik’r butts, so their focus was on her for a while. Though once she was on the verge of death they got bored and went looking for me. So I started firing arrows frantically at them, as I recalled this was not unlike what happened when I had died before, which of course was not good. Meanwhile Kematu kept randomingly saying things like “I’ll see you in pieces!” and “Show me what you’ve got.” Which seemed like mixed messages. Was he threatening me, or bartering with me? He also said, “You don’t have a chance,” but he only said that because he didn’t know about the back-from-the-dead thing I had going for me. Which I kept trying to keep out of my mind, as it really messed with my concentration.
“This ends now!” he shouted, somewhat incorrectly. Unless he just meant in the grand scheme of things, but even then it seemed like a weird time to get philosophical. Like if I shot him and said, “It is what it is!”
“Did you hear something?” said Lydia, as three more guards came barrelling down the cave passage at us.
“Where are you?” said Kematu. I answered by shooting him dead. Which is not how I normally answer questions, but… he was literally asking for it.
It was also worth noting that Saadia’s claim that “the rest will scatter” when Kematu died? Turned out to be totally wrong. They continued pursuing me and Lydia, in a decidedly unscattered formation. Fortunately it didn’t take long to take them down, until there was just one left standing behind Lydia, who, facing the wrong direction, asked “Are you ready to die?” Presumably asking the Alik’r and not me. I shot him before he could answer, but hopefully he was. If not, he should have thought of that before he signed up for Kematu fantasy camp. It always sounds better in the brochure.
Also, that fancy garb that I used to go on about? Upon close examination, it was actually rather cheaply made. Apparently they just wear it really well. And since my earlier pickpocket reconaissance had yielded nothing, there was no point in looting the bodies. All that was left was to tell Saadia the… “good” news, I supposed?
But first, I sat down at one of the tables of the dead bandits, who deserved better but also should have known better, drank some of their mead, mead, mead, and updated my journal.
Until next time,
Steve
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