Having the Star sends tingles to my toes, but I'm close enough to Morthal that I can't wait to go see Farion with my ensouled gem. The other mage up north will have to wait.
But while crossing the ridge and into the valley west of Whiterun, I catch sight of an old friend. No, not a wolf, but they kind of look the same in the right light...
Well, Alduin may be ignoring me, but I'm not ignoring him. He can raise as many of his dead buddies as he wants, and I'll put down as many I want.
Morning, sunshine.
But I don't even have to do most of the work here--I can always count on a newly risen dragon forgetting that mammoths and giants are the new lords of the land.
But just like I dog Alduin at his every turn--or he dogs me; if it's the latter, that makes him look very foolish--the Thalmor seem to be dogging me. Fortunately I'm the sneaky type.
Gentlemen.
I stumble across a lone bandit wandering outside Morthal, and deal with him appropriately before heading into town.
But of course it's almost midnight by now and I'm sure Farion doesn't want to be woken up by a vampire, even a vampire that wants curing. So I check into the inn and rent a room, intent on sleeping until morning. Tonight a vampire, tomorrow a...well, a lizard. But one who's not a vampire.
Morning comes and the inn's cleared out for the day, except for the innkeeper. She's acting a bit distant when I greet her, and--
Oh dear.
It seems in my excitement to stop being a vampire, I forgot that I am one. And now I smell bad. Or something.
This is bad. It's morning, too, so everyone's already awake, even if they're not out of their homes yet. I bolt out of the inn and take cover under the bridge. I listen for the commotion above, waiting for them to go away.
Once the town calms down, I sneak back in, despite the first rays of morning light, and begin checking the homes to see if anyone's still asleep at this hour. Unfortunately, it doesn't look like it--everyone's eating breakfast.
Except for one person. But I'm not a monster. I emphasize that I started backing away before she woke up, so it was a choice I made honestly.
I check the house next door, the only one I haven't seen to yet. It's empty, but it does have something of interest: a basement. I go downstairs, curious to see what's there.
Well...there's something.
Leaving aside the obvious implication that there's a vampire running around Morthal--other than me, of course--I figure the room's isolated enough. Whoever owns it--or uses it--probably won't be keen on letting the authorities know it exists, so I should be safe from detection here. Now I just have to nap until nightfall.
Yay.
I'm woken by some sound from up above. I sneak upstairs and see a man preparing dinner. So I guess he's not a vampire, which only means he's living with a vampire. This is all very intriguing, but I can't waste time wondering who this guy is. I'm thirsty.
I go to the lumber mill--nothing like a hard day's labor to enforce a regular sleep cycle.
With that nasty little business out of the way, I wait until morning and then go to see Farion.
Unfortunately, things aren't quite over. He tells me I have to meet him by some summoning circle outside, and that we've already missed the time of day needed for the ritual. This has been a very long weekend. I was hoping the cure would just be a potion or something with ground-up soul gem in it. It would taste horrible but that would be proof that it was working!
So anyways, I head to the circle and start looking around for a soft bit of ground to sleep on. It's looking to be the most boring day of my life, until I hear that sound.
Yeah, that sound.
Well, I've a rocky relationship with Morthal, but they've averaged above the line compared to certain other people I've met. And besides, I can't risk having Farion eaten or I'll be stuck like this forever.
It doesn't take long to ground the dragon, but it settles down on the outskirts where the children are playing.
Bloody unprincipled beast. I have limits.
Well, it's nice to have an audience. Enjoy, Morthal. I'm pooped.
On the bright side, I'm tired enough that I'm happy to sleep until early morning, just before dawn. I meet Farion at the circle and we begin the ritual.
Or, rather, he begins the ritual. And does it entirely by himself. It's just a lot of yelling at Oblivion and daedra or something, and I wonder why I couldn't have done this myself. But you know what? The guy's doing it for free, so I won't complain.
And why should I? The guy gets results.
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