A Nord's Tale

Steel boots pounding against a wooden floor woke Sanyue from a deep slumber. With a groan she pushed herself up onto her knees, hiding a yawn with both her hands. Slowly, stiff joints popping, she stood up, smoothed her leather armor over her body and made her way to the Great Hall. Martin sat with his back to the fire, nose buried in several tomes as he scratched notes onto parchment sheets, the stack to his left already nearly a hand high. Flanking him was another table stacked high with more books, the edges dotted with inky finger prints as he switched out one book for another. Sanyue wondered how long he had been like that. He seemed so lost in thought that he did not notice when Sanyue approached him, an amused look on her face as she watched him pouring over the Blades library.

Martin seemed to stop his writing as he looked up at Sanyue, noting how she pursed her lips, her shoulders shaking as she tried to contain her laughter. He had bent too close to his parchment in his studies and the tip of his nose had picked up the still wet ink. One of his eyebrows rose above the other as she pointed to her nose. He wiped his nose with the back of his hand which came away with a streak of black that matched the new streak on his face. Sanyue's shoulders shook as Martin wiped his face with a small rag on the side table, noting with some irritation that his finger tips were just as covered in ink. She cleared her throat, keenly aware that she looked about as bad with her hair sticking out of its tie every which way. She was also aware that she must look like she had spent a drunken night rolling around in a dirty alley in Bravil. She smelt like it too.

"Good morning," Martin chuckled, wiping the remaining ink off his fingers on his robe. "You look like you slept well." Sanyue laughed, trying to smooth out her hair.

"How are you, this morning?" She tried not to be nosy and look over Martin's notes, however he did not make to hide them either.

"Much better, thank you." He smiled as he patted her arm, leaving a few small inky prints on her bracer. "A good nights sleep in a nice bed and hot bath in the morning can lift anyone's spirits." He leaned in close to Sanyue. "Now all I need is a sweetroll and a glass of milk and I will feel like a little boy again." Sanyue made an amused sound at the back of her throat, shaking her head.

"You mentioned something about a bath?" She hoped that bathing was not reserved for the Emperor only. If so, there was no way she was going to chance being around so many people in such a small area with out a regular source of soap and water.

"Ah... I can understand. Like the old adventurers' idiom; Bathe often, for the road you travel travels with you?"

"I think the road smeared me into a cow pie and then coughed me up on a bed of stink weed." She picked something that looked like an aspen leaf out of her hair as Martin made a face at her description. "Then it invited it's friends over to beat me with sticks."

Martin shook his head. He had to admit that her description sounded as bad as he had felt the day before. "If you need a bath," Martin made to lean back from Sanyue as though to distance himself from her stench, making the Nord woman roll her eyes. "Talk to Jena, I believe. She should have access to the toiletries." He smirked at her. "And perfumes." Martin laughed as Sanyue smacked him on top of his head with the blank parchment sheets.

She found Jena tending to the toiletries that Martin mentioned. Sanyue could smell the herbs used in cleansing wounds and infections as well as soaps used in bathing. She felt her armor itching against her skin just thinking about a warm bath. "Ah, hello," Jenna smiled as she stood up to greet Sanyue. "I do not believe that we have met. I am Jena, and you must be the brave soul who saved the Emperor's last son from the clutches of the Daedra."

"Erm," Sanyue cleared her throat, feeling her cheeks heat up. "I was told that you were the person to talk to about a bath."

Jena's smile and glance at the state of Sanyue's hair said that she had suspected as much. "Yes, this is the right place for that. The road can be unforgiving, even to those who travel it often." She took a large pot from the corner and began filling it with water from the pump. "Go ahead and take your armor off and set it in the corner over there. I will get another Blade to wash it for you."

Sanyue started on the laces holding the leather to her body as she slid the Kvatch tabard over her head. "I can wash my armor. You probably have more important things to do." Jena leveled a look in Sanyue's direction that caused Sanyue to duck her head. Jena was not a woman to argue with and she let the matter lie as Sanyue left her armor laying in the corner as she was instructed to. The wood stove heated the water quickly and Jena carried it to a large basin in the adjoining room and filled it with the steaming hot water.

Jena repeated this twice more until the basin was full. She set out a few rags and a bar of rose scented soap and left Sanyue to her own cleaning. She lowered herself slowly into the hot water, groaning as it eased the stiffness in her muscles. She remembered a luxury like this only twice in her life. Once when she still lived in Falkreath. She had saved up for a whole year to experience the pleasure of a steaming bath with scented soaps and soft rags. Most of the time she and her mother had just melted snow on the stove and used scraps of cloth to clean their bodies. Baths like this were a pleasure reserved for those who could afford the expensive herbs and oils. The second was at the Tiber Septim Hotel. Though with the Hotel, the guests were timed in their baths and charged if they went over my even one minute.

Sanyue laid back, slowly scrubbing the grime and dirt from her skin with the soft cloth and soap. She gave her hair the same treatment, feeling the strands soften as she dunked her head into the water to rinse her hair. By the time she finely crawled out of the basin, her fingers were pruning pleasantly and the air felt invigoratingly chilly on her skin. As Jena had promised, her armor was washed and dried and folded neatly on one of the benches surrounding the bathing area. A large towel lay near by and Sanyue quickly dried herself off and got dressed, feeling better than she had in weeks.

She wondered how the water was drained when Jena reached into the soapy water and pulled out a stopper made of soap stone, and the water slowly disappeared down the drain. Sanyue tried not to think about where the water had gone as she used a comb to pull the tangles out of her hair and put it back into the loose bun at the back of her head. She turned toward the window and was surprised by how low the sun was in the western sky. It must have been early afternoon already. Sanyue shook her head as she was shooed out by Jena as she set about cleaning the bath area.

By the time she had gotten out of the bath, supper was already being eaten. The meal was simple; Shepard's pie with her choice of either mead, ale or a glass of wine with her meal. Sanyue chose the mead and she sat down in the small dining area to eat in silence. There were only four others dining with her; Achille, Belisarius, Cyrus and Captain Steffan. Each one seemed to take their meal in silence, exchanging only short conversations with each other before returning to their meals. As they finished, Achille asked them to place their plates and glasses near the sink as he set about washing them. It had not occurred to Sanyue that each Blade might have a duty as domestic as either cleaning the bathing area or washing the dishes after a meal. Though she supposed that the risk of infiltration was much too high to just hire a maid or cook to do those things for them.

Sanyue spied a plate of sweetrolls on the middle table, watching as several of the Blades took one or part of one to finish off his meal with. Rummaging through one of the cupboards, she found a pitcher of chilled milk and she poured some in a small mug as she took a sweet roll with her out into the Great Hall. Once again, Martin was buried nose deep in his research, his fingers an inky black and his eyes tired. The only light he had to write by was the fire at his back and a plate of candles in front of him. The doors to the Great Hall opened and the candles fluttered on Martin's desk as she placed the mug of milk and sweet roll down in front of the priest. He stared at them for a moment before he realized what he was looking at. Sanyue smiled at him as Jauffre waved her over to him, holding the door open so that she could follow him outside.

The two walked to the western sentry tower. They were protected from most of the wind, however Sanyue did not mind in the slightest. "It is good to be back here," Jauffre turned his head to look out over the walls into the valley below. "It raises my spirits to walk these ancient halls again." Sanyue could feel the renewed determination in his voice as well as see it in his stride. "We will prevail. We must prevail." Jauffre's enthusiasm was contagious, it seemed as several Blades looked renewed themselves as they walked past on patrol.

"And we will, Jauffre," Sanyue smiled, leaning over to watch the guards patrol along Bruma's towers. "once we get the Amulet of Kings back."

Jauffre squeezed her shoulder as he mirrored her posture, watching the walls of Bruma. "You're right. We must try to recover the Amulet before the enemy takes it out of our reach. You should go back to the Imperial City," Sanyue tried to hide her shock. It was better that neither the Blades nor Martin know how she came to be wrapped up in this. "Baurus may have learned something about the assassins." Sanyue nodded, already planning how she would get into the city without having to present her face to the Imperial Guard. "You'll most likely find Baurus at Luther Broad's Boarding House. At least that was where he was staying when he sent word to me a few days ago." Sanyue bowed to Jauffre and turned to leave to pack for the trip.

"Ahh," Jauffre caught her attention again. "Give my warm regards to Baurus. Tell him he should not blame himself for the Emperor's death. He did well to send you to me." Sanyue nodded and quickly packed a few days worth of food and water. Prior Maborel's mare was already fed and saddled when she came back out and a Knight Sister named Caroline led the mare down with her to the entrance to the temple.

"Ride fast, young Nord." The woman's voice was full of motherly warmth as she smiled brightly. Sanyue nodded and smiled back to the small Breton woman as she mounted her horse and urged her into a fast trot down the mountain path and onto the Silver Road. "Talos guide you," the Blade whispered, watching her disappear in the white of the snow. "do not fail as we did."

---

Jauffre made his way back into the Hall to warm himself in the fire. He may have felt joy at returning to a place where he had spent much of his younger days, however his bones were simply too old to be in the cold for so long. He watched as Martin finished a sweet roll before emptying a mug of milk. Jauffre chuckled, "Is Caroline mothering you, again?" Caroline had gone out of her way the night before to make sure that Martin had everything he needed, even going so far as to offer to mend his robes and wash his hair with scented oils. Jauffre knew the Blade was channeling her sorrow at Uriel's death into doting for his only living son, however he had made the poor man down right panic when she had entered his bath chamber as he was getting out of the water and offered to dry him off and help him dress.

Martin chuckled. He had tried desperately to cover himself from Caroline's gaze, feeling absolutely mortified at the time. Looking back on it he had to laugh. "Not at all, Jauffre." He set the empty mug on the plate of crumbs as he ran his fingers through his hair. "I mentioned as a joke, to my rescuer, that all I needed to feel like a little boy again was a sweet roll and a glass of milk. I appreciate it, actually. I had not eaten more than a piece of bread since this morning. I suppose I was hungrier than I thought."

Jauffre smiled as he grabbed a chair and sat down with Martin, deciding that the man probably needed someone to talk to after all that had happened. "Jauffre," the monk met Martin's eyes, noticing he was deep in thought. "I don't mean to open and old wound." He sighed, folding his hands in his lap. "How exactly did my father die?"

Jauffre sat back, crossing one foot on the other knee. "I was not there, however I know that he was killed by assassins. They attacked as he tried to escape from the city through underground tunnels. Before he was killed, he gave Sanyue the Amulet of Kings and told her to find you."

Martin nodded, staring down at his clasped hands. "Is she one of your Blades?"

"No," Jaffre shook his head. "I had never met her before two days ago when she came to Weynon Priory dirty, tired and carrying the Amulet and an impossible story of how Uriel told her to find me and then you."

The two stayed silent for a few moments, the roaring of the fire the only sound in the room. "Did Sanyue tell you how she met my father?"

Jauffre let his breath out through his nose, shaking his head. "All she told me, was something along the lines of what Uriel would have told me; That the Gods had placed her in his path so that they would meet."

"And do you believe that?"

"I have no choice for now. However," Jauffre stroked his chin as he looked into the fire, letting the flames form random shapes in his mind. "The only entrance to the escape tunnels lies in the Imperial City Prison." Martin furrowed his brow. "Where condemned prisoners are held before their execution."