A Dreamer in a Dream (chapter 18)

YSMIR, DRAGON OF THE NORTH! II

Skadi drank in the scene before her with a quirk to her lips. Eir was still eyeing him grumpily, aye, but he had won her parents over. Not that it was hard.

All her father needed to hear was that he hadn’t shied away from taking the fight to the Thalmor, and her mother needed even less.

What’s important was that her plan worked perfectly, all else forgotten in the wake of her announcing that she had found a husband. Even her sister had been swept up in it, if not in the way she might have liked.

How long the spell would last she did not know, but she was happy for the reprieve. 

Mirmulnir had also quieted in the days since, no longer spitting fire and venom in her mind on a whim. She had felt no pity for him then and she felt no pity for him now. Skyrim was safer this way.

As she watched her mother continue to try and wheedle out where her man was from, her thoughts again returned to what he had said to her, though she still struggled to understand it. Though his presence had grown more solid with every day, sometimes he still seemed like a mirage beneath her eyes, something that might disappear the moment she looked away.

She snorted softly at the thought. What did it say about her that the only man she had let into her heart so readily might have only been pretending at being a man?

Or perhaps that was exactly why she had found it so easy to. Had she not been pretending much the same?

At least he was not Daedra. That much she could always tell.

Skadi fought off a frown as she was reminded of that whore of Mehrunes Dagon. Not only had she interrupted them, but she had practically attached herself like a tick or a leech.

She was soon drawn out of her thoughts by Bors lapping at her fingers, drawing a chuckle from her. She scratched him behind both his ears like he loved.

“You’re an old man now, aren’t you?”

He gave her a funny look as if he did not appreciate her comment, but that was nothing more scratches couldn’t fix.

Leaving what was left of her hen for him as well, her eyes caught Eir again, and she stood, tugging her into her old room where they could talk. Her man seemed to be handling himself just fine.

“I’m being nice,” her sister immediately defended once they were inside.

“It’s not that,” Skadi said with a chuckle. “Can’t I talk to my sister?” She still poked her freckled cheek, drawing a pout from her. “Though I didn’t know nice meant looking at someone like they had stolen your sweetroll.”

Eir crossed her arms stubbornly.

“I’m sorry for making you wait,” Skadi said next. “The journey home from Hammerfall had not gone as smoothly as I hoped. And just in time for the war and the World Eater to find me,” she joked.

“It’s not right what the Empire’s doing.” Eir avoided her eyes as she said it.

“It isn’t,” she agreed. “It’s not right what Ulfric Stormcloak is doing either. It’s why I went to Hammerfall. I needed to see for myself. They had beaten back the Dominion, aye, but it was a hollow victory. There’s not much left of southern Hammerfall now, entire cities reduced to burnt out husks on the sands.”

The Redguards knew it was only a matter of time until the Aldmeri Dominion returned to finish the war they started, and they will have learned from their failures.

“Then what are we to do, Dragonborn?” There was a smirk on her sister’s pouty lips now.

Skadi knew she was only teasing her, but it was a question she had been asking herself even before the Greybeards called her to High Hrothgar.

“We take the fight to them. If the next war is again fought in Hammerfell and in Cyrodil, there won’t be anything left to rebuild. The war after that will be fought right here in Skyrim.”

Yet how was she to convince the Empire to not only start the war first but to fight the Doninion where they are strongest? The answer stared her in the face now, even if she still shied away from it. She was still a farmer’s daughter at heart.

There was a knock on the door before Russ poked his head in. “Am I interrupting?”

“Yes!”

Skadi gave her sister a look before beckoning him inside. “You managed to escape.”

“I told them I was going to give them a grandchild. We’ll probably want to get down to business before they start asking questions.”

Skadi sighed, used to his antics. Eir meanwhile looked was doing her best to look like a tomato.

“This is your room, hmm?” It shouldn’t bother her, but she couldn’t help some embarrassment as he looked around. “These must be the spoils of war your mother mentioned.”

Divines, she forgot about the dolls.

“They deserved it,” she insisted.

“I’m sure.” He stopped near the bed and then squeezed between them shamelessly. “Cozy.”

The glare her sister sent him could have lit a man on fire all on its own.

“I heard something about a war earlier,” he broached next.

She snorted before she caught him up to speed. Even Eir seemed slightly curious as to his thoughts.

His eyes found her, and behind them yawned something that also watched her, and behind it… “I think you already know the answer.”

She had danced around it one night. Had he figured it out?

“And what is that?” she challenged.

“You do what Reman and Tiber Septim did. Or maybe Alessia would be the better comparison here.” Something like mischief danced on his lips as he spoke the last.

If Eir weren’t here, she would have asked if he was implying he was Morihaus in this story.

“We already have an Emperor,” she reminded him.

“Mmm, and something tells me he would be perfectly happy to give you the job if you asked.”

He only looked at her innocently as her eyes narrowed.

“I think a crown would suit your head nicely also.”

Hmph. He knew her heart too well. She had dreamed more than once of a crown upon her brow, sometimes one of jagged bone and sometimes one of ebony.

“You were the queen of Ivarstead in all but name,” Eir added. But then she always looked up to her. “Tamriel’s just bigger.”

If it was up to her sister, she would be able to beat the World Eater and the Aldmeri Dominion with only her pinky finger…

“Didn’t expect your support. Maybe you’re not so bad.” His words only put a pouty frown on Eir’s lips.

“Then she would have to find a new husband. Someone who wouldn’t look like a lost little boy next to her.”

Skadi sighed, but Russ only laughed. At least he did not take insults like a Nord.

“I think your sister can confirm that I’m a man where it matters,” he threw back with a confidence that tickled a part of her nicely.

“I’ve had no complaints,” she husked.

Her sister gagged dramatically as Skadi kissed him. She wondered how Eir would take to her housecarl. They were two peas in a pod when it came to some things.

She was suddenly reminded of something. “Where is that boy who was always following you around? The one always boasting about marrying you. Did you say yes?”

“No! You know I always told him he was stupid for saying that!”

A shame. Still, her sister was a beauty. She wouldn’t have a hard time convincing a man she fancied to marry her.

She felt Russ pull her in for another kiss, his fingers toying with the dress she had changed into earlier. The same one her mother had made for her when she sprouted up like a tree.

The shameless man was giving her those eyes as well, and right in front of her sister.

She gently pushed him back, spying Eir looking like a tomato again. “This is one bed we won’t be breaking.” She knew just where to take him.

There was a perfect stack of hay when she pulled him into the barn that she quickly pushed him back on.

“I think they’ll still hear with how loud you can be.”

“Hush,” she said as she joined him, staring up at the stars. “Sovngarde seems so far away from here, and yet sometimes it never feels closer.” For a moment she had even thought she would meet her end against the Tongue, her legend done before it truly started.

“Something tells me you used to come here a lot.”

“I used to sleep here some days, when it wasn’t too cold.”

“There’s such a thing as too cold for a Nord?” he teased.

“You’ve not seen the winters around here. You will soon.” Frostfall would be upon them soon, and Sun’s Dusk after that.

She felt him take her hand. “Asking for a friend, but how do Nord weddings work?” he asked in that irreverent way she’d grown fond of.

“You’re already meeting the bride’s parents. Usually you would come with a gift to show your wealth and ability, but I’m no maiden fresh as the first snows.”

“Ah, so that’s why your mother…”

Skadi turned on her side as he trailed off. “Why my mother what?”

“The stars are bright tonight, huh?”

She straddled him for his cheek, but he still refused to say.

“You would have a crown as well if we were married,” she teased back. “I don’t know if it would fit you.”

“Maybe you’re right. I’ll just have to wait until you make me the right one.”

That was the comment that had her reaching for a certain part of him, and soon their conversation devolved into something more primal.

When they were done, she fell back on the hay with a sigh. She knew she would miss this feeling of bliss when she ascended to High Hrothgar and he left for Winterhold.

For a mad moment she wanted to insist he come with her to High Hrothgar as well, but she was not so greedy. How many times had she imposed on him already…

It did not help that she was rather curious as to what a stranger to Mundus like he was wanted from the College of Winterhold, and the mention of the Thalmor being there only made it worse.

She knew he was not a friend to them. She well remembered the corpse they left behind on the road, only surprised that the Thalmor had not retaliated. They were not the forgiving type.

“Penny for your thoughts?” He had turned on his side this time, his fingers tickling her belly.

“You mentioned Alessia earlier. Do you imagine yourself as Morihaus, impregnating me with monsters?”

“Not monsters,” he insisted, not even denying the other half of what she asked. “I think they’re more likely to take after you.”

The thought of children had never failed to terrify her. The woman that she was was much too prone to whimsy to do it right.

“We can revisit the idea when Skyrim is not at war within and without,” she finally whispered.

Her eyes caught sight of the Ebony Blade that never strayed far from his person. She had always kept one eye open in case it tried something, but it never had.

Now she had some idea why that was.

Sleep took them both soon after, a surprisingly peaceful slumber. It wasn’t often Vaermina spared her nightmares.

They did not stay long after breaking their fast with how her ma kept sending her knowing glances. She had quickly grabbed a protesting Eir to meet her housecarl.

Thinking back, perhaps she should have expected it to be a disaster. If her sister didn’t think much of her man, she thought even less of her housecarl, and he didn’t help by acting like she didn’t deserve his time either. Sometimes she much disliked how stubborn Nords could be.

And where had her man vanished? That he had the gall to tell her he wasn’t going to disappear if she wasn’t holding his hand like an unruly child…

When he finally rejoined them, he had a queer look about him. She didn’t protest when he pulled her away, closer to the Throat of the World.

There he caught her eyes as he pulled from a pocket what appeared to be a simple band of ebony with two gemstones embedded in it. “I had Gray-Mane make it before we left.”

He then got down on one knee for some reason she couldn’t fathom, still holding her hand, his eyes so very serious for once. “Will you marry me, Skadi?”

While she knew some exchanged jewelry, it was normally during the ceremony itself. Was his plan to wed her here and now? Divines, he could have at least told her! What was she to give him in exchange now?

“They should be here, Russ,” she said instead, sounding skittish even to her ears.

“Relax,” he teased, still on one knee. “I’m only making it official. I don’t have much experience with weddings anyway.”

Her heart quickened. This seemed important to him.

“Then yes, I will marry you, you silly man.”

He slipped the ring on her finger, the sun catching on the gemstones. Old Gray-Mane did not disappoint as always.

It felt like something had changed. Official, he had said.

Then he pulled her into a heated kiss. Skadi decided she liked official.