The Speaker's just finished her schpiel about the Graybeards and me being the Dragonborn and me forsaking my destiny and all that. So, I do what any sensible vampire-assassin-crime-lord does when confronted with a paragon of virtue and discipline: I draw steel.
If she wants a fight, well, I'm not going to treat her any differently just because she's a Nose.
Okay, maybe I will.
She tells me to listen. I tell her that I'm listening as long as she's the one with the arrow drawn at my neck, but then she tells me that, no, her name is "Lisin". Oh-ho, I'm going to have to fun with that. But then she goes on to say that she doesn't want to kill me; that's not what the Graybeards want. Rather, they'd prefer I stopped messing around and actually answered their call.
"Oh, riiiiight..." I say, remembering when the mountain started screaming at me back when I killed my first dragon. And that was supposed to make me want to go see them?
But Lisin persists. "You serve Nocturnal. You're a person who respects a good deal. What do I have to do to persuade you to go to High Hrothgar?"
"I take cash," I say.
But at about that point, the Jarl Black-Briar wakes up and tells me to quit using her chair to hold meetings. So Lisin and I go to The Bee and Barb to talk.
She explains further--evidently my being the Dragonborn is kind of a big deal. The dragons are connected to me somehow, beyond the fact that we're distant cousins (I think). And if I don't go see the Graybeards, Skyrim will in all probability be destroyed. That gets my attention--I kind of like this place, especially now that Ulfric's dead and I run the Thieves' Guild.
But I tell her about my own problems. First, I don't like taking orders from noisy old guys who live on mountains. Second, my life isn't exactly sweet rolls and cream--every Nose in Skyrim has ample motivation to see me dead since I beheaded their king, I've pissed off the deadliest group of assassins in Tamriel, and oh, right, I'm a vampire who's so hungry right now I've already begun casing the inn to see if I can get upstairs unnoticed.
"Listen, Lisin," I say. "Any time I spend helping your Graybeards is time not spent on my own problems. So I'll need some help on my end if I'm going to do this."
She agrees, on the condition that I go to High Hrothgar first. I concede, and we head out from Riften together.
It's a lovely night out and I'm happy for the fresh air. I've spent the past two months in Riften, managing the Guild, which mostly consists of sneaking into Mistveil every midnight to impress anyone I have to talk to. And also to feed on the court wizard, who wouldn't mind if she knew because she's really old and could use the extra few thousand years.
I also discover to my amusement that Lisin, for all her vaunted training, can't keep up with a vampire in a brisk early morning sprint. As such, I reach Ivarstead long before she does.
But then she tells me she can't actually climb the steps with me. Something about it being a sacred ritual, a pilgrimage for the lone traveler. Whatever--she's obviously just really tired, but I leave her at the base and start up the steps on my own.
But not for long! An old friend drops in to say hi.
Unfortunately, dawn breaks just a few minutes later. I lose track of what step I'm on and grunt in frustration. Hearing a troll up ahead, I put my sword away and take out the old bow. I'm a bit rusty, having not used it in months, but I'm too tired to do much in the way of hand-to-hand combat.
I gasp my way up the next 2500 steps, wondering how a bunch of old dudes got up there in the first place. Every step hurts more than the last, and the sun is only creeping higher over the horizon. This is stupid. Cruel. Evil. It's vampirist, is what it is. That's how they'll kill us off--just build things in tall places and tell the vampires they can only come during the day. That'll get 'em for sure.
I stop to catch my breath before continuing on my way.
I also kill another troll.
I think I must be getting near the top, but I have to stop again. At least the view is nice.
I'll bet I can hit Brynjolf from here.
At long last, I drag my aching legs over another ridge and see High Hrothgar. Or the building at the top of High Hrothgar. I forget which is which, and I really don't care.
I hope this place has hot water.
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