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Meeting the Stranger
They spend two days on Ravenna’s estate. Lucien does a lot of cooking when Ravenna doesn’t call on Viggo for it, and Inigo makes himself right at home at the archery perch. Ravenna joins him up there to practice her own aim with spells at one point, and they talk, Ravenna happily learns a bit about Inigo’s childhood, but insists there was nothing interesting enough to talk about happening during her own. Kaidan is as distant and broody as ever, but takes up in her library, helping himself to the wealth of historical and literary knowledge in her half-filled and two-thirds organized library. He does attempt to pick through her magic notes at one point, hoping to discover some horrifically evil magical studies or experiments she might be involved in, but ultimately the most vile thing he manages to make any sense of is a recipe that turns out to be for a lavender perfume she likes to wear. He’s torn at this point, between trusting the evidence he’s witnessed so far that she is just a genuinely good person, and his inherent distrust towards her for being a vampire - which is a predisposition he doubts he’ll ever be able to completely disregard. In the end though, he gives up wondering why he ever thought he’d find something amiss in the first place. Lucky he does before Ravenna corners him in the library, instead of after, but the conversation they have about a fictional hero’s epic she enjoys is surprisingly engaging, and Kaidan finds himself feeling oddly refreshed afterwards, accepting her offer to take it with him and read it on their travels.
When Lucien isn’t playing chess with Inigo, messing around in Ravenna’s kitchens and alchemy lab, and generally getting on Kaidan’s nerves - sometimes intentionally, sometimes not - he is training in magic with Ravenna. After their recent dragon encounter and subsequent chaos, Lucien has felt rather guilty for relying solely on the rest of the group to keep him safe - especially with the sudden increase in danger now that the dragons are back. He’s glad much of their training consists of poring over her old magic notes in the library, it’s far more to his liking than if they were to go out into her courtyard and swings swords at things for hours. Ravenna seems to need the refresher course too, Lucien notices as they go over her old notes -and when he says old, Lucien means old. All the pages, bindings, and faded ink remind him of the ancient and well-studied research materials he’d seen and read through at the libraries and colleges he’d been to in the Imperial City. In between the musty old books and hours of meditation, Ravenna and Lucien do some idle chatting. Lucien tells her about his family, she tells him that his parents sound like lovely people and tells him a little about her own doting mother and father. Inigo has been trying to get details about Lucien’s lover or lovers the last several days already, but it is Ravenna who finally manages to extract the information. Lucien reveals that his girlfriend is a poet back home in Cyrodiil, who sends him the loveliest letters. In exchange for the gossip, Ravenna regales him with tales about several previous lovers of her own, sharing misadventures of both romances and friend groups of the past. There’s certainly a pattern in terms of who Ravenna chooses for her partners, too, Lucien observes - between the tall, muscular nord who was her first love, the shorter, but built and cryptic dunmer spellsword she dated sometime after she first took to adventuring, and the burly orcish warrior who apparently set out to sweep her off her feet after she absolutely kicked his shit in during a one-on-one fight, Lucien cannot pass up the chance to tease her about how much she’s made her love life sound like a trashy romance novella. Then they get talking about actual romance novellas and find out they’re both complete suckers for them, so Ravenna picks one out from her collection for Lucien to read while they travel - at his own insistence. At one point Kaidan walks into the library while they’re discussing this shared guilty pleasure, only to turn on his heel, and immediately walk back out in disappointed silence.
Some of the fun and games end when they leave the estate, but not all. On the way out to Riverwood, they collectively do a crossword puzzle in a brain teaser book Lucien brought along, which they score by who can solve the most answers. All four of them almost tie, but Lucien wins by two points, leaving Ravenna in particular feeling miserably out of touch as she belatedly realizes she should have known both those answers. Lucien and Inigo run out of songs to sing at some point and when Ravenna gets bored she decides to get out some ridiculous book she brought along and start reading it aloud. Kaidan is pretty sure she has this book, not because it is a good book, but specifically because it is so horrible that it’s funny. It’s an awful novel about an edgy young woman attending the mage’s guild in Cyrodiil, and it’s so stupid, badly written, grammatically incorrect and riddled with spelling errors that Kaidan takes Ravenna’s hands in his and claps the book shut for her, nearly begging that she stop reading just so he doesn’t have to hear her purposely mispronounce another word. This ultimately starts an argument with Inigo - who, despite wholeheartedly agreeing that the story is horrible in every possible way - complains that he had become invested in the wizardess’s story. However, after they realize they made a wrong turn and have to backtrack an annoying distance everyone agrees that someone else should read the silly book next time they have a need for mindless roadside entertainment so Ravenna can properly navigate.
They finally reach Riverwood as the break of day nears, and if their mysterious friend wasn’t already at the Sleeping Giant, they would have ended up there anyway to rest while the skies were light. They go in, they ask for the attic room, and as the quartet crowds into the tiny room they were assigned, Lucien shuts the door behind them, and everyone begins searching the room for clues. They're all asking questions right now that aren't getting answered, but why someone took the horn and took off isn't one of them. That is obvious; someone wants something. Whoever took the horn wants something and thinks they can get it from the newly announced Dragonborn. Evidently, someone familiar with the Greybeards and their habits, too. The door opens, and the innkeeper toddles in, with answers on offer. Delphine is her name, and she passes the horn, not to Ravenna, but to Lucien instead. "So you're the Dragonborn I've heard so much about," she says with a sly grin and a glint in her eye like she's got it all figured out. All around the room, eyes dart, as an awkward tension rises. "It's, uhm. It's not me, actually," Lucien finally says, slowly. Delphine frowns. "Who is it then? Don't tell me it's him," she looks pointedly at Kaidan, who shakes his head, and looks down to Ravenna where she is sitting primly on the edge of the bed. A brief look of surprise shutters over Delphine's face before she finally just says "Huh, didn't expect that. Follow me." And so they do, although none of them can imagine how Delphine thinks she looks leading them all into her bedroom like it's not the most obvious thing in the fucking world. Inigo shuts the door behind them, and Delphine opens up her wardrobe's false back panel, leading them into a tiny secret basement. How charming.
With all the cards lining up on the table and the turnout looking like the start of a bad theatre orgy, Ravenna, Inigo, Lucien, and Kaidan gather around Delphine's conspiratorial little table, where Delphine grills Ravenna non-stop, grating her down like a block of eidar cheese and talking a big game without giving Ravenna any tangible reason to take her seriously. Delphine demands Ravenna's respect, but outright refuses her any in return, but she isn’t expecting it when Ravenna turns the tables on her.
“We remember what most don’t, that the Dragonborn is the ultimate dragonslayer. You’re the only one who can kill a dragon permanently by devouring it’s soul. Can you do it? Can you devour a dragon’s soul?”
“Yes,” Ravenna answers, “I don’t think I could possibly confuse what happens to me when dragons die with anything else, in fact. Hey, you wouldn’t happen to be working with the Blades then, would you?”
“What? No, I - how could you possibly know that?” Delphine sputters, caught off-guard.
“There aren’t a great many organizations out there dedicated to dragonslaying, that I know of. You’ve also got one of their swords there in the corner, just laying out. Had you thought I just wouldn’t notice?” Ravena indicates the weapon, something bearing a vague resemblance to Kaidan’s own sword.
“I-” Delphine starts, but Ravenna interrupts.
“Why did you feel the need to keep it from me that you’re a Blades member? Especially if you thought I was the Dragonborn,” she points out.
“I needed to make sure you weren’t a Thalmor plant,” Delphine snaps.
“Why are you even worried about the Thalmor?” Ravenna asks. Delphine briefly seems surprised that Ravenna is asking such a question, but not long enough to stop her from using the opportunity to recapture control over the conversation, using Ravenna’s ignorance to get things back where she wants them.
It takes her a minute, but eventually Delphine stops fucking around long enough to actually tell them what she wants, which turns out to be seeing Ravenna fight a dragon in person, because for some reason, the approval of the Greybeards - masters of the Thu’um and teachers of every known Dragonborn in Tamriel ever - isn’t sufficient for her. So they go meet Delphine in Kynesgrove, and take their sweet ass time doing it. They camp out again a few times on the way, and Ravenna vengefully entertains the idea of stopping on the way to visit the hot springs before ultimately dismissing the idea, if only for the looming threat of a dragon attack potentially on the horizon regardless of Delphine's nonsense. It is only after Ravenna has unwillingly performed her miraculous dragon soul-eating feat for the second time ever that Delphine stops talking down to her constantly.
“So you really are Dragonborn,” Delphine says, letting some of her genuine excitement show briefly before reeling herself back in, “I owe you some answers don’t I?”
“I’d certainly say so. Start with the Blades, what happened to you?” Ravenna asks, “Last I remember, the Blades were still a powerful faction in Tamriel, even if they were still awaiting another Dragonborn.”
“We were. But not powerful enough to bring down the Thalmor. Before the Great War, the Blades helped the Empire against the Thalmor. Our Grandmaster at the time thought they were the greatest threat to Tamriel. Back then, that was true, maybe it still is. So, we fought them in the shadows all across Tamriel, thinking we were more than a match for them. We were wrong.”
“Hold on. What great war?”
“The Thalmor started a war with the Empire almost thirty years ago now. Where’ve you been, girl?” As Delphine says this, Ravenna’s allies do some eye-contact exchanging behind her, as they all wonder about the same thing. Where has Ravenna been, during all this?
“Out of the country,” Ravenna answers vaguely. Technically not a lie either, she was in Solstheim, which is technically part of Morrowind, in a crypt, asleep. Her torpor had lasted about 30 years this time, so she’s rather out of the loop.
“Right,” Delphine agrees suspiciously.
“Moving on,” Ravenna expertly changes the topic, “What do you know about the dragons returning?”
“Not a damn thing, I was just as surprised as you to see that big black dragon here.”
“I recognized that dragon, the one we saw fleeing Helgen. Wasn’t that the same one?” Ravenna turns to her party.
“Far as I could tell,” Lucien agrees.
“Sure seemed that way,” Kaidan supplies.
“You have seen that one before?” Inigo exclaims.
“It was the one who attacked Helgen, I think while there was some sort of congregation of Imperial forces there,” Ravenna contextualizes.
“Interesting. Same dragon. Damnit, we’re blundering around in the dark here! We need to figure out who’s behind it all,” Delphine gripes.
“And how do you propose we do that?” Ravenna asks her pointedly.
“The first thing we need to do is figure out who is behind the dragons. The Thalmor are our best lead, if they’re not involved, they’ll know who is,” Delphine answers.
“What makes you think the Thalmor are bringing dragons back?”
“Nothing solid. Yet. But my gut tells me it can’t be anybody else. The Empire had captured Ulfric, the war was basically over. Then a dragon attacks, Ulfric escapes, and the war is back on. Now the dragons are attacking everywhere, indiscriminately. Skyrim is weakened, the Empire is weakened. Who else gains from that but the Thalmor?”
“I suppose you make a good case for the Thalmor - who is Ulfric again?” Ravenna is really not caught up on things.
“Ulfric Stormcloak, Jarl of Windhelm and leader of the Stormcloak rebellion. He and his men are rebelling against the Empire over the outlaw of Talos wordship imposed by the White-Gold concordat that ended the Great War between the Thalmor and the Empire,” Delphine looks increasingly irate at having to catch Ravenna up.
“Why in Nirn would the Empire agree to outlawing Talos worship?” Ravenna asks, “Tiber Septim was their god and emperor first.”
“The Blades weren’t the only ones losing out against the Thalmor, girl. The Empire couldn’t defeat or sustain a war against the Thalmor, so they’ve made a peace with them instead, but tensions are still high and it will surely be short-lived. Another war with the Thalmor is just on the horizon once the Empire has the manpower and resources.”
“I see. And the Stormcloak fellow thinks going to war with the Empire’s occupation of Skyrim now, right before another war with the Thalmor is about to break out, is the best thing he can do for his country-”
“We aren’t here to discuss politics, girl.” Delphine cuts Ravenna off irately.
“My name is Ravenna, do not call me girl,” Ravenna snaps back with equal vigor.
“You will speak to me with respect, if you want me to help you investigate this,” Delphine raises her voice at Ravenna, and for a second the vampire looks like she’s about to drain her next victim.
”You are the rudest person I have ever met,” Inigo seethes from behind Ravenna before she can decide whether or not she's going to literally sink her teeth into Delphine.
"I-" Delphine starts, but this time Lucien cuts her off.
"You nothing, Inigo is right. Stop hazing Ravenna and lets just get back to it. There are bigger issues to be worrying about."
"You have no-" she starts, but is finally shut down a third time, by Kaidan.
"Shut the fuck up, Delphine," the very large and very annoyed man orders. Delphine, finally, shuts the fuck up.
"Just tell me how you plan to investigate this," Ravenna says, bringing things back into focus. Delphine takes a deep breath, and answers.
“If we could get into the Thalmor Embassy... its their center of operations in Skyrim. Problem is, that place is locked up tighter than a miser’s purse. They could teach me a few things about paranoia.”
“How do you propose we do that, then?”
“I’m not sure yet, but I have a few ideas. I’ll need some time to pull things together. Meet me back in Riverwood in a few days, and keep an eye on the sky, this is only going to get worse.”