3rd person P.O.V

The Sleeping giants inn was one of the noisier places in an otherwise quaint little town. Of course, nobody expected a tavern to be quiet even in a small town.

And of course, though Riverwood was a bit far from any larger town or city it served as a great resting spot for any adventurers or soldiers that passed by from their adventures into the Skyrim wilderness.

Adventurers and workers spent their days toiling away and their afternoons here, listening to the bard's songs, drinking and eating away their earnings.

And that was generally what happened on an average day, except today. Because a near dozen soldiers armed to the teeth strode in looking like they had just gone on a conquest to Atmora.

The patrons paused their chatting and drinking and stayed silent. Sounds of the clinks of armor were the only things that could be heard as they walked up to the merchant/bartender at the front, Orgnar.

Trying his best to not look too panicked, he chuckled nervously while wiping away sweat on his forehead with a towel.

The scariest one of them all, one that had armor that looked like he stole it from a daedric prince and jumped out of Oblivion, stood in front of him.

“A-ah! What’ll you guys be having? Ale for 8 septims, Alto wine for 15. Or do you need a room? Hehe..”

The man, wordlessly, unstrapped his bag and reached into it. Orgnar reeled back, worrying that he had offended him in some way.

“Is that too expensive!? 5? No 4, that’s the lowest I can go-”

He let out a sigh of relief when the man pulled out another, smaller bag that looked like a money bag. He checked the contents of it before setting it on the counter.

“12 ales, also I’m paying for everyone's drinks here so tell them to get whatever they want.”

They left the counter as Orgnar took the bag, hefting it up, before checking the contents and almost fainting. There were at least 500 septims stuffed in this tiny sack, more than enough for everybody in the tavern to drink three or four times.

“Thanks for the patronage, good sir! Delphine, big customer. Help me get their drinks!”

The mood of the tavern instantly changed, with the noises of the drinkers increasing louder than before they got here.

“Looks like we got lucky boys! Thanks to the demonic stranger!”

“Whoo, I’m drinking till I’m dropping !”

Ivan P.O.V

Sitting at one of the larger tables, Ivan checked his bag once again as the rest of them sat down. For some reason or another, he had found out that if he wanted money from his bag the number left would pop up in front of him, though no one else could see it.

And the final number was around 856,000 septims.

See, if I was this rich in real life then I probably wouldn’t have been in the situation I was in before.

Considering the armor he had on would cost a little more than 7,000 septims it wasn’t an exaggeration to say he was essentially a multi-millionaire if Septims were translated into USD. (The economy is really weird in Skyrim. Let’s just say it’s a 1:3 conversion)

Anyways, 500 septims was pocket change for him. If he ever needed more, he had a huge amount of high end items and weaponry to sell, most of which would surely sell for more since it was so foreign. It seemed that whatever caused him to come here had combined all the money he had from multiple games, maybe because it was identical in each game.

However, that was besides the point. What he really cared about was what he was going to do from this point forward. He wasn’t sure he was going to attempt to stop the dragons since, unless they attacked him or his allies, they weren’t much of a threat as the future dragonborn is bound to defeat Alduin and stop the dragons from burning Tamriel to the ground.

What he was interested in was what was going to happen later on. According to the Underking, everything was going to change as soon as he got there.

So what the hell does that mean? Is this about the Thalmor? Or maybe the Daedric prince…ack! I have no idea anymore!

“12 ales over here?”

He was snapped out of his thoughts by a female voice right in front of Ivan. Looking up, Ivan saw a slim Breton woman holding two trays full of tankards of ale.

“Yes, that’s us.”

The woman nodded before putting the tray down on the table, with each of the men passing a mug back around the table. He had known this since he had chugged that healing potion, but for some reason undead could both eat and drink, he found this especially weird for skeletons as they were completely hollow and empty inside but somehow their taste buds weren’t dead.

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Though there wasn’t much they could talk about, considering the fact that they had been dead for a few centuries. They just wordlessly took sips of their drinks through small slits in their helmets that were meant for their mouths.

Then she turned to him. She stared at him and she stared back, though she couldn’t really see it from underneath his armor.

“That’s some interesting armor there. Mind telling me how you got it?”

“...by prying it off dead daedra and dremora in High Rock if you must know. Do you have a moment Delphine, may I talk to you in private?”

She raised her eyebrows.

“Just so you know, I am not open to any relationships.”

Ivan chuckled at this, though it was quite mirthful.

“Trust me, with your temper and morale compass I wouldn’t even consider it Knight Sister”

Delphine nearly dropped the tray onto the floor in shock as he heard that word. She looked around the tavern to see if anyone else was paying attention to what he had said but was relieved to find most of her patronage drunk.

“Follow me”

Ivan got up from the table as Delphine hurriedly went to the counter where Orgnar was taking orders.

“Orgnar, cover for me for a bit. I’ll be back soon enough”

“Got it”

Orgnar barely noticed her as more customers had started pouring in because of the free food and drinks.

Delphine glanced at Ivan.

“Is this why you’re giving away free food and drinks?”

“Partially, now let's go.”

Following Delphine through the hallways and then into a certain room. Closing the door behind him, she then opened one of the closets which revealed a hidden set of stairs that lead to a lit room at the end.

Before getting to the bottom, Ivan made sure for the final time that Spellbreaker was attached to his arm. From so many playthroughs, he knew what Delphine was likely to do.

She walked into the secret room and paused.

“So, how do you know who I really am? Are you part of the Thalmor?”

“What?"

Without giving him time to answer, she grasped her blade from off the wall and unsheathed it before lunging at Ivan.

—-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Jarl Balgruuf P.O.V

“My Jarl, you need to take your duties seriously. If either the Stormcloaks or Imperials decide to force you to make a choice, we will have no option but to choose.”

Jarl Balgruuf was having an extraordinary ordinary day, though most days were like that in Whiterun. There were a few troublemakers here and there but generally everything was okay.

“Ireleth, I understand the importance of that but you cannot possibly expect me to send a delegation to either side as of now. The fighting has gotten worse, yes, but none of them have attempted to involve Whiterun as of yet.”

Though it was easy for him to say, sitting on a throne in one of the safest cities in the area, he was taking into consideration the real possibility of the day where he will be forced to make a choice.

Whiterun was safe, unbelievably so. Corruption levels were immensely low, beggars were non-existent, everybody could practice whatever religion (except daedra) and worship whoever (except daedra) they wanted.

In many ways, Balgruuf was the most responsible as he had created this city. But how long was that going to last?

“Oh that’s right, what happened to those three guards? You said they went missing a few days ago?”

“Yes Jarl, they haven’t shown up yet. We suspect either they were killed by bandits or captured somewhere as they were patrolling outside. We have four more days before we must pronounce them dead.”

“Lady Irileth, the guards are back!”

Their conversation was cut short as a guard ran into the throne room where they were talking. It was obvious that he was panting through his helmet, seemingly having run quite a distance to get there.

“Speak. Where were they?”

The guard took a few gasps of air as he took a minute to breathe before straightening up.

“They were kidnapped by a group of brigands that had outnumbered them and brought them to Bleak Falls Barrow, hoping for ransom money from Whiterun. They managed to somehow overpower nearly a dozen of them and make it back!"

Balgruuf glanced at Irileth, pleasantly surprised.

“What have you done to the guards? Is that feasibly possible with their current skill? If so, I am thoroughly impressed.”

At this she shook her head.

“They are decent fighters, yes, but it shouldn’t be possible to overpower an enemy that has three times the number as them.”

“See for yourselves!”

The guard opened the door and a whole swarm of Whiterun guards entered the room, with a few of them having found the bandits that had fled and tied them up, making them trail behind them with their heads hung low.

“Wonderful news! Seems your guards have exceeded your expectations, eh Irileth?”

Irileth groaned, even though he was a groan man he really acted like a kid sometimes.

“I suppose you are correct. We should probably raise their salaries a bit”

One of the guards, the captain, stepped forward.

“Sir, thank you for your words of praise but we didn’t get out by ourselves. The bandits were attacked by a group of undead and that was how we managed to get out”

Irileth sighed.

“See my Jarl, this is what I mean. Clearly the draugr’s of the tomb came out and attacked the ones standing up and they managed to crawl away."

The man, arms shaking slightly, reached up and took off his helmet. He knew he had to look completely certain, complete with all the conviction he could muster up.

“My Jarl, we didn’t sneak out because we were bound by ropes. The monsters…if I can even call them that anymore, they knocked all of them out and untied us. They, they SPOKE like they were ALIVE.”

And those were the words that silenced everybody in the room.

And chapter 6 is done! I’ll continue later on but probably not tomorrow, my finals are soon and I kind of want to go to university.

I’ve been uploading everyday but when finals are around the corner it might be a bit difficult but I’ll still try.

Thanks for reading!

W.O.V