Inheritance - Chapter 5 - Explanations

  • As he emerged from the shadows he felt a light tap on his left shoulder.

    “By the eight, I didn’t even make it two feet into this damned city.”

    These words were all that escaped his mouth before he stopped himself and turned to find both Runa and Sofie staring at him with expressions of combined fury and worry.

    “What do you think you were doing, helping him steal those horses from right under Katla’s nose, just to go on some harebrained adventure?” Runa berated him, having always been the stricter of Alarne’s two sisters. As the words left her mouth she jabbed him in the chest; emphasising her rage towards him. As far as Blaise could tell, Runa had not yet discovered Tullius’ role in their quest or the real reason that they had left; that was something, at least. He was far more worried about what Sofie knew of Alarne’s leaving, while she may be the more laid back of the two her eyes and ears were always open to what was around her; for all he knew she may have learned of Alarne’s plans long before they actually left.

    “Where is that foolish brother of ours anyway? Don’t tell me something ha…has…” In trying to hold back the tears that must have been building up since discovering Alarne’s absence Runa had stopped midsentence. As though sensing the sudden change in its master’s demeanour Vix appeared at Runa’s heel and started rubbing itself against her leg.

    Blaise was left speechless, having never before seen Runa brought to tears in all the time that he had known her, as he watched she bent down and grabbed hold of the snow fox  as though he might disappear. His attention was torn from Runa and Vix as he was roughly shoved up against the wall next to the metal gate, Sofie had him by the collar of his tunic, and looking into her face he could see a deep rage built up in the depths of her eyes. The very idea that Sofie was even capable of being truly furious had never occurred to Blaise and the sight of such an emotion even this well hidden was far more striking than Runa being brought to tears.

    “What my sister and I would like to know is where Alarne is and what has happened for you to be here without him?” The most intimidating part of her anger was that there was absolutely no trace of it anywhere other than her eyes, not even her voice gave any hint of the beast lurking behind her calm expression.

    “Ok, ok I’ll tell ya everything just please let me go and stop looking at me like that” he was released instantly and the anger in her eyes was smothered, it was not gone just hidden; Sofie had probably had a lot of practice since they left.

    “A week before his birthday Alarne finally wore down General Tullius as to the orders he had given yah father ten years ago, he learned of the Stormcloak camp that the Dragonborn had been sent to destroy and so with my help he hatched a plan to sneak out of the city in search of yah parents trail.”

    From the looks he was getting he was starting to believe that he had been right before in his guesses of who knew what as Runa wore a look of surprise and Sofie one of someone who was listening to something they already knew “We were passing through Ivarstead when Alarne encountered a vampire, no he wasn’t harmed all the beast did was try to make him into a thrall but something went wrong I’m not quite sure. All I know is that he wasn’t given any orders and that I managed to get him to the Dawnguard, who said they would do their best in exchange for me delivering some messages to some of the Jarls; warning of vampires in their holds.”

    It took a couple of minutes for either of them to respond to what he had just said but when it came it wasn’t what he had been expecting, for once Runa was completely silent and it was Sofie who actually broke the silence “In that case we will help you deliver the letter that you have for the Jarl and then we will accompany you back to our brother to check for ourselves that all is well, but first we need to stop in and tell Jordis what has happened so that she’ll know where we are headed.”

    There was no question in what she had said it was simply a statement of what would happen and it denied all argument from him, and so with Alarne’s sisters in tow he made his way towards Proudspire manor. As he walked he could hear Sofie and Runa talking between themselves about what they would need and what they would do once they had met up with their brother.

    The dread that had been building since learning that he must return to Solitude had only continued to grow as they neared the main entrance to the manor; that had been awarded to the Dragonborn and his family all those years ago. He was about to lift his hand to knock when his dread was answered with the worst possible outcome. The door swung open to reveal not only Jordis but also Katla both wore the furious expressions that Runa and Sofie had been wearing when they first found him, here we go again was the first thought to pass through his mind as he beheld the pair before him.

    He spent the next hour describing every detail of what he and Alarne had done since Alarne had learnt of his father’s last known location, the half hour after that was full of profuse apologies from Blaise aimed at the four assembled before him. As soon as he had finished talking and they were satisfied that he had told them all he could, Jordis stormed out of the manor in search of Tullius; who would be in for the fright of his life, Runa and Sofie headed upstairs to gather what supplies they would need, leaving Blaise to face an angry Katla.

    They sat in silence for the better part of five minutes before Katla finally stood and headed for the door, as she turned the handle she stopped and looked back over her shoulder at Blaise who had not taken his eyes off of her the whole time he had spoken

    “You had better believe that if you don’t bring those horses back in the same condition as you ‘borrowed’ them I will have you arrested for horse theft” there was a slight pause as if she was deciding on what to say next “It’s good to see you back safe, you had better come back once all this is over.”

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