Dragonborn Ascendant (24)

“Wow!” Fjotra whispered, wide eyes twinkling in amazement. “Is that the temple? It’s so big!” Asked the little girl.

A chuckle escaped my lips and I placed a gloved hand on her head to tussle her flocks. An indignant whine escaped Fjotra’s lips who pouted, glaring at me.

“You haven’t seen it yet, squirt,” I told her. “We’ll be going there soon enough.” I said, but I had already lost her attention.

Just like a child, she was curious, and easily impressed by anything she saw as we travelled. The little brunette was quite inquisitive, pointing out and asking about several things on the trip back. Surprisingly, Aela took a shine to the girl, spending most of the time at the girl’s side, indulging in her every curiosity. Lydia too seemed to quickly warm up to the child, but she still remained somewhat isolated, perhaps trying to maintain her image of a dutiful housecarl. And in Markarth, that curiosity seemed to only grow further.

“You’re back,” were Hamal’s first words as she watched us slip inside the temple. Then her eyes widened, immediately landing on the girl walking timidly behind me. Her breath hitched. “Y-you…” She got up to her feet. “You really found her… You brought her to us…”

“As I promised,” I grunted. Turning to look at the little girl, I could see her hesitation, the uncertainty in her eyes, in the way she nervously bit her lips and looked up at me, trying to look brave. Offering her a hand, the girl swallowed her fear and stepped forward. “Go on, child.”

“U-um, hello…?” She greeted the greying woman who smiled. Genuinely smiled, a soft, happy quirk of her lips.

“Hello, child,” Hamal greeted back, kneeling to stay level with Fjotra. “I’m Hamal, head priestess here at the temple.”

“I’m… Fjotra.” The girl answers back, awkward.

“It’s good to finally meet you, Fjotra,” the priestess says. Then she rose back and turned to another priestess. ”Orla,” she commanded. “Show our young Sybil her quarters. I’ll be with you shortly.”

“Yes, mother,” the Nord woman says, bowing before quietly directing Fjotra away.

“I can’t believe it…” the head priestess sighed, watching the two walk away. “Please, prostrate yourself in front of the altar. This service… I believe Lady Dibella would be happy to award you with her blessing.”

Let’s hope so, I thought, nodding before stepping forward.

The main chamber had four pillars sustaining the weight of the ceiling, tall granite like structures that had each a statue of Dibella carved on the stone, all of which overlooked the central aisle. It was an elevated platform containing an octagonal stone basin embedded in the stone, with clear cool water inside. The altar had a clear view of the galleries off to the sides where a couple more of priestesses watched as I rose to the altar before kneeling down in front of the basin.

An intense light filled the room, and a twinkling laughter echoed in the air as I gasped, feeling soft fingers delicately touching my face.

Then I pulled back, reeling with wide eyes as the light receded, almost tripping and falling down the steps that led to the platform.

“What the-...?!”

“That’s-!” Hamal whispered incredulously, and my eyes snapped back to face her, only meeting the shell shocked expression of the head priestess in return. “Unbelievable!” She gasped. “To- to think Our Lady would grace us with her presence…! You… you really are something special, sire.”

“The perks of being a prophesied hero…” I muttered to myself. “Fuck,” I grimaced. “I… I’ll need some time to recover after this.”

“Y-yes, of course,” the matron hurriedly nodded. “Please, you can stay for as long as you want, sire.” She said, but my mind didn’t register her words.

Instead, my thoughts turned to what had just happened. Dibella… did she really appear to bless me?

The feeling of soft fingers touching my chin and caressing my jaw was undeniable. It did happen, but… Weren’t the Divines too weak to manifest themselves outside of a medium.

Or was it that the water of the altar was strong enough for her to manifest, if very briefly?

Or perhaps, is it because they now had a Sybil that Dibella was able to show herself?

I didn’t know, and no matter how much thought I put into it, returning to the altar in the temple time and time again over several days; I didn’t seem to be getting any closer to finding an answer.

Despite  my growing frustration trying to understand just what exactly happened on the altar, I was often distracted by the priestesses after long periods of fruitless contemplation. Mainly because of Senna, a Breton woman that was not particularly subtle with her flirting and interest in me, always somehow managing to entice me and lure me away to where Hamal would often intercept us before anything could ever truly happen. Keyword being often.

In turn, the head priestess would unfailingly try to distract me by providing lessons in enchanting, something that I quickly found to be her specialty.

Enchanting was not an easy art. It was very personal and involved, and thus often many aspiring enchanters must begin their paths on their own. That is because, for someone to truly be able to place an enchantment on an item, they must achieve a primal understanding that can only be attained by destroying an item with the desired enchantment placed upon, the knowledge flowing into them as the Arcane Enchanter extracts said knowledge.

That didn’t mean, however, that there was nothing that could be taught, as I learned. Mainly, they were processes on how to construct the enchantment, how to construct enchanting matrixes that were better, more robust and more efficient; how to make an enchantment stronger, or how to make its effect last longer. Really, the basic enchanting techniques Farengar taught me in Whiterun were, as they sound basic, they were simple and easy enough to understand that practically anyone could start their path as an enchanter with them. However, when taught by a master of the art - because truly, I couldn’t call Hamal anything but a master enchanter -, there was a clear, almost brutal change in quality in the instructions, as well as the sort of guidance I was provided.

Whereas Baalgruf’s court wizard had enchanting as merely another area of knowledge he was proficient but not particularly gifted in, the head priestess at the Temple of Dibella, had it as a passion she took very seriously, and demanded of me almost as much as she demanded of herself trying to pass her knowledge.

My teachings with Hamal lasted for weeks. Winter had finally come to the Reach in that period, and Markarth was covered in snow. Because of that, work in the mines grew like never before. The stone became harder with the ice, and the ores harder to reach and extract, and the smelter worked tirelessly, employing many more citizens than usual. Of course, there would always be some vagabonds and layabouts doing nothing and only mooching off of other’s work, but the overseers seemed all the much harsher when catching these, sometimes punishing people with floggings when they weren’t outright thrown off to the streets.

It was in that period that I also began to take a more personal look into my mines.

I had not the faintest clue on how mining techniques worked, and for that reason I stayed watching mostly from afar as the miners worked.

It was through this that I learned just how advanced Tamrielic blast furnaces were in comparison to my old world. At least, to a pre-industrial society. For instance, they already had coke and flux involved in the smelting process of their ores, which allowed metal - mainly iron and silver - to be smelted at much higher temperatures, which in turn allowed for many more ingots to be cast down than if using normal fuels like coal. At least, that’s the case of the coke. The flux, in metallurgy at least, is a substance that promotes an easier smelting process as well as the removal of impurities from the liquid metal.

I remember watching a video in my old world mentioning flux, and how borax was often used as one such substance present in many common industrialised products and as a key component in making clear glass. Borax, however, was not the only substance that could be used as flux. Fluorite name comes. Fluorite is a glassy, many-hued vein mineral, and can be found in abundance near lead and silver ore… which can be found easily all around Markarth, and in fact, the Reach as a whole.

What does that highly technical and frankly useless knowledge mean?

Well, I began to dabble in blacksmithing, and one of the first things you must learn if you want to be a good smith is how to make metal, and how good metal is made.

And just like everything else, it seemed I had great talent for blacksmithing. Forging a quality dagger only after two days of picking a hammer and heating metal? Easy. Forging armour barely two weeks after that? I could do it blindfolded, and that’s honestly quite freakish. Mulush gro-Shugurz can attest to that as he so often remarks while I taught myself how to produce steel - which, fun fact, is not made with carbon around these parts, but is an alloy of iron and corundum - orichalcum, moonstone… Pretty much all known metals. With ease…

It was thus that I forged my first armour ever. It was steel plate, which was cheaper and much easier to produce than other metals; over a chain mail that took me two whole weeks to make.

Alas, I was finally ready. After a long, long time. And on the 22nd of Morning Star, when Winter has fully settled in Skyrim, Lydia, Aela and I finally leave the city of Markarth and trek up north with Solitude as our new destination.

-x-X-x-

A/N: First of all, thanks for everyone still supporting me. I don't really say this frequeently, but I'd like to reiterate: you guys are the reason I keep writing, so thanks for everyone who wants to see me continuing writing stuff.