Chapter 21 - The Ugly Truth?
[A/N: Now listen, WE HAVE MADE A (((Discord channel))) YOU KNOW WHAT THAT MEANS!!!!
I post the template images of the characters and the system that Jon created.
There is ALSO a (((*******))) now, WHICH MEANS there will be bounce chapters.
LINKS DOWN BELOW AT THE END OF THE CHAPTER AND AT THE DESCRIPTION.
ENJOY.]
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Kill her.
That's what they want me to do, to kill that girl.
I feel sorry for such a girl.
She is as old as me, her face was messed with, her left eye gone blind, her head gone nuts…. And now they want to kill her.
To tell the truth, I'd rather not.
How can I kill someone who I already read what they wrote and understood their pain?
I liked these poems she wrote, they were mostly about killing and gore, yet some of them expressed how she felt, how trapped she was, how she was trained and brought up.
She was abused because of her appearance, she was abandoned and lived in some orphanage like me.
Well, I had Nurina so I was very lucky.
Would I have been like that child if there were no Nurina?
Maybe.
I was in a bad mood after I left that place.
I told them that I will do it right before I leave Solitude, but I had no plan in mind.
I wandered the streets of the city as it started to rain, it was getting late, rain is good.
What should I do? The girl will die either way.
She will be executed once they get no more information from her.
And if she talked she will be considered a traitor to the brotherhood and must be killed.
Don't get me wrong. She is an assassin… but,
After I read her journal I had some mixed emotions about her.
She may have been better off if she was abandoned at Riften, Nurina would have brought her well.
But now she is a psycho killer with a poetic fetish.
Hehe, I kind of liked her poems and I want to see more of them.
Sheogorath really did a number on her.
[A/N: Sheogorath is the Daedric Prince of Madness and all the fun stuff]
While I was walking I saw someone familiar.
"If it is not Rusning of the college." I greeted him.
"Jon of the 'White Wolves', well-met kinsman." He greeted in a Nord way.
"I see you dueling a lot these days." I started a conversation.
"Not as much as you, how many have you dueled till now? 11?" He asked.
"12 this morning." I answered. Some people wanted to go against me these past couple of days and I took many head-on. I wasn't into fighting them as I really wanted to fight some strong people.
"See, anyway what brings you to this part of the city?" Rusning asked.
"Thinking, Rethinking and Overthinking." I answered how my mind was feeling.
"Hah! You look like a man who needs a drink to me." Rusning laughed, "Come, come, follow me."
"Where to?" I asked.
"The college has a place in each hold and there where we stay, I have some good Argonian Bloodwine." Rusning said.
"Fine by me." I followed right away.
Walking in the main street that links the Blue Palace to Castle Dour we arrived at a well-established manor.
It looked the same as the other buildings in Solitude, most of them were built in a manner special only to the city.
As I entered I could really see how majestic this place was from the inside, this place was full of magical energy as many lightsphere from the spell 'Magelight' were all over the place.
They seem to not use normal candles or lanterns for illumination but they used 'Magelight' spell.
There were many books and circles of magic all over the place, seems like these students from the college use this place to study.
There were also many flower pots from many locations in Skyrim.
"Sorry, the place is always messy like this." Rusning said.
"No, not at all. The place is actually beautiful." I said.
"Glad you like it." Another voice came from upstairs.
It was that haughty woman, "Lady Faralda, fancy seeing you again."
"So it's you, the boy who the assassins couldn't kill." Faralda said while smiling.
"I am glad it wasn't Lady Faralda who wanted me dead though." I said, it was a joke.
"If I wanted you dead, people would have seen it as a natural disaster." Faralda said while smiling.
Scary, this woman is scary, rather than the scary Faralda from the game, and due to many mods, this Faralda is actually beautiful but scary.
"Let's not get on Lady Faralda's bad side from now on, haha." I said while breaking into cold sweat. This woman is ranked as a senior Wizard.
Nurina told me about the ranks before and Wizard is as a high one, I don't remember the rest of the ranks now though.
[A/N: I am using Oblivion's ranking system and will explain it, Later]
"What brings you here?" Faralda kicked the jokes aside.
"I invited him for a drink." Rusning said.
"Now you are buddies?" Faralda asked with a mocking tone.
"We fight and share a drink, then we become friends, that's how it works." I cut in.
Faralda was taken aback and then shook her head while sighing and said "Nords." then she went up and left.
"She is actually a nice person but she hates losing, you understand?" Rusning said.
"I know I know, just like my mothers, they would beat Oblivion out of me even it was just training." I said while remembering me spars with Hilda and Nurina.
"Mothers?" Rusning asked.
"Yeah, I was adopted but my real birth mother comes to visit." I said.
"I thought you were from an orphanage." Rusning said while offering me a seat and bring a bottle.
"I was, The headmistress is my adoptive mother, she was the one who taught me magic." I said without thinking.
"Oh! So she is also a wild mage like you?" Rusning made a face of wonder.
"Wild mage?" This word was not in the game.
"Ah! This is what we call the mages that didn't grow up in a magic teaching facility like the college or a mage faction." Rusning said.
"Ah! I see, I am maybe what you call a wild mage but mother is not." I said.
"That explains why you're that good." He said and offered me a tankard. "What about your other mother?"
"She has her own problems." I said, I don't normally talk about Hilda to anyone but people you don't know are not bad listeners.
"What about you? I never thought I would see one Nord from the college, let alone five." I asked.
"Not everyone hates the college. My great grandpa was a mage, and our family at that time was rich and happy. After many years my family declined so they thought to send their child to become a mage too, and that's how I ended up." Rusning said.
"Hmmm, family problems, let's drink to never have that ever again." I raised the tankard.
"I'll drink to that everyday." He raised his tankard and said.
After chatting for a while I came to know that guy and I really liked his personality.
"You never told but your mother who adopted you is not a Nord, right?" Rusning said going off topic.
"Yeah, she is at the college now." I was a bit drunk so talking was smooth.
"Whoa! Who is she? I know everyone." He said.
"She is a Dunmer, Her name is Nurina." I said nonchalantly.
Suddenly I could hear something fall and Rusning who was drinking started coughing and his wine came out of his nose.
He was choking so I hit his back with my palm and he came back to life.
"Nuri- Nurina Aren?" Rusning shouted.
"That's her." I said.
He was opening his mouth like an idiot, one can send a whole egg in and out with ease.
Suddenly we heard fast footsteps coming from the stairs and Faralda jumping with wide opened eyes.
"Where? Where is she?" Faralda was looking around.
I looked at her and asked, "Where is who?"
"Hey, Rusning where is Nurina?" Faralda asked.
"She- She is not here, b- b- b- but Jon here says she is his mother." Rusning said and pointed at me.
"... Mother? Impossible. Nurina would never do that to me, right? He is a human, right?" Faralda kept talking to herself then she turned to me, "Hey, you, tell me the truth, if you lie I'll know, if you hide something I'll know, if you think about the idea of thinking about lying or hiding something, I will definitely know."
Fralda turned crazy for a second, then she looked and grabbed me by the shoulders, "What is Nurina to you?" She asked.
"Sh- sh- she is my a- a- adoptive m- mother." I broke into sweat and was started shaking.
Faralda's appearance gave me shivers, she was shaking and due to the lighting, shadow was on her face which left her golden eyes gleaming. She also released a lot of pressure.
"It doesn't seem you have lied." She said, "Where were Nurina all these years?" I was totally intimidated by that woman.
"She just headed to the college a month ago." I spilled the beans.
"And where was she before that?" Faralda demanded more answers.
I honestly didn't want to answer but that was not possible now.
"She was at Riften." I said.
"Doing what?" She asked.
"She was the headmistress of the orphanage." I said.
Faralda face turned from full glare to shock. She staggered backward and put her hand on her head.
"All these years my Nurina was alone in Riften, and I couldn't find her anywhere." Faralda started mumbling to herself as she went upstairs in unsteady steps.
But wait a minute! What was that just now? And what did she say 'my Nurina'? The hell is going on?
I looked at Rusning who was in a daze, "Hey, what is in Oblivion is going on?"
Rusning looked at me and took some time for him to collect his thoughts.
"One of the seven wonders in the college was called Nurina Aren, she is the cousin of the current Archmage Savos Aren and she was the head of the Conjuration major but she disappeared one day, what could make the college know that she is alive and well was because she made some connection with an underground organization to deliver messages to the college and keep up with the situation there." Rusning said.
"The only reason we think senior Nurina disappeared was teacher Faralda. You see, I don't know if this is an elf thing or some girls do that, but teacher Faralda is in love with senior Nurina, older members of the college used to say that teacher always clung to senior Nurina all the time and was stalking her which caused senior Nurina to disappear." Rusning said, "Teacher, on the other hand, kept looking everywhere for her for nearly 16 years now."
Oh! Okay, so it was like th...WAIT JUST A SECOND!!!!!
Who was doing what? When is going where? I can hear words but they don't make sense when my brain scans them.
Time up please! Reboot system! Report Bug! What is the hell!
Let's review the conversation log once again.
Nurina was at the college - check.
Savos Aren's cousin - check.
Head of the Conjuration major - makes sense.
Escaped from the college - sounds like her.
Faralda was the reason - more reason to hate Altmer.
Faralda loves Nurina - Go away.
Faralda was Nurina's stalker - that's too scary.
Hey, hey, what the hell was that? does this even make any sense?
Hey Author, were you drinking?
[A/N: That's haram]
Hashish?
[A/N: Illegal]
Then how the hell did you come up with that?
[A/N: It popped up just now and I wrote it]
JUST F**K OFF!
This guy is just running out of content and seems to be throwing all weird sh*t on me.
No, this can't be right! Too much headache now.
The assassin girl's matter was one thing, but Nurina's matter is just too awful to handle.
I also need to handle Hilda's problem and a dragon breakout in the future, isn't the author just too mean?
Let's keep drinking for now.
"Hey, give me more wine." I said.
"I got you." Rusning said, what an understanding person!
"The matter I talked to you from before just keep them a secret for now, too much trouble will pop up because of it." I said, Rusning nodded quickly.
This is too tiring.
"I just can't get my head into this anymore. Still, I need to find a way to get to Winterhold after the tournament." I said to myself thinking about the future.
"You are going to Winterhold? Will you join the college?" Rusning said.
"Yeah, I am planning to for some time then I'll go wander Skyrim after that." I said.
"I see, then you can just come with us." Rusning said.
"How do you travel to Winterhold?" I asked.
"By a ship of course." He said.
Perfect! that solves one of the problems.
"Hey, can I get two places?"