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Disturbing the Dust
Somewhere in the wilds of Solstheim outside Raven Rock, the still air of a sealed and concealed cavern nook is, for the first time in many years, disturbed by its sole resident. Ravenna Rosewood untangles herself from the nest of quilts and pillows she had submerged herself in when first entering her torpor however many years prior. She wakes up wretched, mind hazy and throat dry for the sanguine essence that is the basis of her continued sanity, and her delicate hands fumble on the table by her bed for the enchanted carafe left out in anticipation of this bloodthirst. Once the carafe is emptied, the rest is just a morning routine, simple and sluggish as any mortal's, filled with stretching and bones popping, bathing and skincare. It isn't morning though, and Ravenna knows it isn't because she never wakes up with the sun. She only rises with the moons, and indeed, once dressed in ashlander robes and hidden deep within a hood, she opens the concealed doorway to her hideout where Masser and Secunda are adrift in the sky to greet her. Raven Rock has retreated indoors to the comfort of its homes and inn for the evening, and, hoping to catch a ship back to Skyrim, Ravenna moves briskly through the town to the docks. She catches them at the very last second, but there is a ship returning to Skyrim, and with her charming face and a handful of Septims, Ravenna secures her passage with them in just the nick of time. The familiar bite of Windhelm's frigid air hits Ravenna for the first time in what must be decades as she leaves the ship, around midnight. Few are out and about at this late hour, save for two drunken men whom she hears harassing a woman outside the tavern.
"-eat our food, pollute our city with your stink, and you refuse to help the Stormcloaks!" one of the drunk men yells, and it's too early for Ravenna to go sticking her nose into everything but she decides immediately that she's going to anyway.
So much about the world can change while I hibernate, but never the people, it seems, she thinks to herself as she moves towards the noise, following her keen hearing. And what are the Stormcloaks? What about them makes people defend them like this? She wonders darkly as she overhears the male instigators calling the woman a grey-skin, a racial slur referring to a dunmer - and what's this talk about a war? As the two drunks begin to threaten the Dunmer though, she abandons her curiosity and confusion. She's not one for brawling, and magic will kill them, which isn’t worth it in a city full of guards to come to their aid, so Ravenna gets a bit creative to deescalate things. She screams, high and shrill, as loud as she can and darts out from the alley towards the trio, purposely bumping into the two drunkards, and trying to shove past them. "Werewolf! Get out of the way, werewolf!" she cries in a shaky, panicky voice, "Run!" And they do run, both too drunk to actually glance into the dark alley that she came from and purely absorbing Ravenna’s artificial panic in their drunken stupor, shoving her back towards where they think the creature is to try and get away. The Dunmer woman however is holding back her snickering at Ravenna's little performance, which she drops almost as soon as the two boors are gone.
"Are you alright?" The small vampiress asks, smiling conspiratorially back to the Dunmer woman.
"Better now they're gone. That was awfully clever of you, well done," the woman congratulates. Ravenna performs a flamboyant curtsey in response, swishing an imaginary skirt. "Why thank you my good lady. May I ask whose aid I've come to this evening?" The blood-drinker asks as she rights herself.
"Suvaris, my lady. And your name?"
"Ravenna. It's lovely to meet you, but I am afraid I have elsewhere to be at the moment. Please, be safe," Ravenna politely excuses herself before hurrying out of Windhelm and into the cold, unaware of the unwanted attention she has already drawn to herself as two Vigil of Stendarr watch her leave from the inn.