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JASH
Music filled the fall air as we danced. I had hired bards from the Bards College in Solitude and inns I liked. The people of Rorikstead trusted me to make sure the entertainment for the harvest festival at Goldenhills Plantation attracted those with gold to spare.
Nobles mixed with commoners. My farmhands danced with thanes. Meanwhile I made sure that everyone was respected. If someone acted out of line, by raping or harassing another, one of the few Dark Brotherhood Initiates would take care of them in the morning. I didn't want anyone murdered on this night.
Out of the corner of my eye I saw a woman doing her best to entice me. Her movements were just shy of a whore. Besides the fact that my heart belonged to Alex Casey, she was a Dunmer. While I had been able, through much effort, to put my slave past behind me there were limits. I didn't hate the race but I could never be in a romantic relationship with one. Maybe if I was extremely aroused my **** would bypass my mind. But tonight my mind was clear on the matter.
I did my best not to look at her so she would go after different prey.
While dancing I saw Sissel and started to move to her side. The Dunmer noticed and stopped flirting with me. The young Nord adolescent was drinking and watching everyone enjoying themselves. From the sweat on her brow I could tell that she was just taking a break from dancing.
The young woman had retained her innocence while living with an abusive father and sister. Her mother was gone as she had been secretly sacrificed to the Daedra that blessed the soil. Sissel had magical abilities that were first noticed by Jouane Manette. Whenever I visited town the dryskin allowed me to teach her but, for now, declined any request to take her to the College of Winterhold.
Sissel's growth into puberty had given her the right proportions to attract a decent handful of suitors. Which meant that she could leave her family sooner rather than later. Though she, kind soul that she was, still loved her family.
She looked at me and I nodded in her direction. While walking I made sure not to let down my guard as this festival was important to the power I held in Skyrim.
The location of Goldenhills Plantation hid how important it was to me. It wasn't nestled in a city like Solitude or Whiterun. Instead you had to walk through the wilderness to reach it and the largest settlement next to it was Rorikstead. While a pleasant town, it was tiny compared to a city like Windhelm.
Goldenhills Plantation's power was due purely to the harvest festival that I hosted every year.
"Jash." Sissel said.
"Sissel." I said. "Enjoying the night?" I watched a young thane walk close by and my mind instantly went to how useful he would be. He wore fine clothes and there was hardly a callous on his hands. He was someone that admired comfort above all else and hadn't outgrown his naivety. That would make manipulating him to my own ends that much easier.
"You know how to hold a party." Sissel replied.
"It is a talent that took time to learn." I said in Jel.
"There's been a rumor in town over the last year. Well...years before that."
"Let me guess. There is someone in Rorikstead that I secretly long for." I said in the Common Tongue.
"Yes. The rumor is that you seek my hand in marriage because you're teaching me about magic."
I laughed. The young girl had caught my interest due to her dreams of Paarthurnax. Though I hadn't revealed the knowledge that the dragon she dreamed of was very real and alive. Of course the rumor didn't include the dryskin that also taught her as he did so in secret. A secret I hid with my life.
"I'm sorry, egg-friend." I said as my laughter died down. "I teach you magic as I can sense a greater destiny ahead of you. It would be wrong of me to leave you without the knowledge to achieve what is so rightfully yours."
"My pa helped start the rumor." Sissel said as she finished her mead. "He says that the only way I'll be useful is if you marry me."
I had to resist the desire to search for Lemkil. My crest rose to its fullest extent as I thought of how best to kill him. I had a Shout and spells to make it so that the huge gathering of people would kill him for me. But Sissel would never forgive me if I killed the abusive father she still loved.
"Sissel, your worth isn't measured by deeds or status." I said once my crest returned to normal. "Your worth isn't determined by such things. If Lemkil doesn't notice that, he is a poor father indeed."
Sissel opened her mouth to say something but was stopped by a sudden commotion. It started with a woman yelling and then other people joined in as a thief attempted to run away. She managed to weave her way through the crowd but couldn't avoid two guards.
"I don't want any death tonight." I said, walking over to the thief with Sissel close behind me.
"I am sorry, Dovahkiin." One of the guards apologized and stopped his sword from piercing the thief's chest.
"Take her to the nearest jail. I'm sure a Jarl will have a most fitting punishment for this dryskin."
Sissel and I remained silent until the thief was taken away. She had been such a good candidate for the Thieves Guild. If I hadn't thought she was worthy, I would have kept her away from my plantation. At least her clumsiness could now be noted.
Of course there were many thieves hidden amongst the once again festive crowd and not all would fail. Most of the dryskins didn't know that besides being a celebration of the last harvest of the year, this festival was a trial for potential thieves for the Thieves Guild. It would be weeks until the thanes and nobles would notice valuables missing. At that point they wouldn't connect their losses to anything that happened at Goldenhills Plantation.
Suddenly I found myself in a cave deep inside a mountain with a dryskin body in front of me. Its lifeless corpse was covered by various vines and roots. These vines and roots also held the female dryskin body on the wall like a profane statue.
With the dripping of water off in the distance the only sound, I walked closer to the body. The woman was not a Nord or any other race of man. She was short with only two inches separating her from four feet. Her hair was also a strange color. The brown was hidden under mostly purple.
I tasted dirt in my mouth and found myself back in Mundus. My body had fallen onto the ground and Sissel was now crying at me to wake up. The vision had been much stronger than it had appeared to be.
"It's fine, egg-friend." I told Sissel.
"I thought you had died!" She sobbed and I put a hand on her cheek.
"Death is more afraid of me than I am of it."
"Is there anything I can do to help? I know a few healing spells."
"I just need to rest and I'll be fine. Perhaps I drank more than I thought."
"I'll help you to bed, Jash."
It would do my heart good to make a soul like her happy. She deserved everything good in the world. She deserved much more than Rorikstead or I could give her. Maybe one day she would become a Greybeard and talk with the dragon she had dreamt about.
"No," I said reluctantly. "There are already rumors about me wanting to take your hand in marriage. If people see you enter my house and come out still unwed the rumors could get deadly for you. They will think we ****** and that you will allow anyone inside."
"They'll call me a whore." Sissel agreed.
"And your father and sister already abuse you enough as a virgin."
"I'll get Onmund."
Sissel quickly raced to get the steward who had once been a simple mage studying at the College of Winterhold.
As I continued to wait on the ground, I thought about the vision. The only thing that had been perfectly clear was that woman had been me before being reborn as a Saxhleel. That body rested in the Mountain, my plane of Oblivion, now. Perhaps I would find it useful if going to Earth. I doubted I could walk around unnoticed in that reality as myself. Alex hadn't been convinced that something like a Saxhleel could exist. Which meant it was a world covered by men and men alone.
Would Alex still love me if I appeared to him in my old dryskin body?
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