Companions

I went back to Jorrvaskr after taking the shield.

The others were done with their trainings since the hall was full of people this time. And there was a bare fist fight going on between a dunmer man and a nord woman.

"Are those two at it again? Strike when the shoulder turns. He's giving you openings!" A man was giving them instructions from the side and the rest were cheering them.

"This should be good."

"Just keep swinging like an idiot!"

"I'm going to enjoy killing you haaah!"

"Gah! Azura curse you!"

I watched the fight a little bit and it ended with a draw since they both knocked each other out.

"Oh come on! I thought he had it this time."

"Let me see them coins hehe." There was even gambling going on since a man took all the money from other people.

And after that I went to look for Aela. I asked the people around and learned that she was downstairs also.

Probably took a bath after her training.

I found her room by asking the people around and knocked on the door.

It was opened by the familiar red haired woman.

"Long time no see. I got your shield."

"Ah, good. I've been waiting for this. You were…Alaric right? Kodlak approved of you from the looks of it."

"I told you, this is the whelp that Vilkas mentioned." Then, the man in the room said. It was the same man who was giving instructions in the previous fight.

"Ah, yes. I heard you gave him quite a thrashing." Then she said with a smirk.

"Don't let Vilkas catch you saying that." The man said. Now that I looked at it, he had a blind eye.

Then Aela turned to me, "Do you think you could handle Vilkas in a real fight?" And asked.

Now, this was a good question.

"I'm not too sure. If I could use magic, maybe. But it was the first time that I met someone physically stronger than me and it looked like he was intentionally increasing his output whenever I applied a little bit more force. So, that makes me think that he was hiding quite a bit of his strength in the spar and that also makes me think that he could be hiding something else but I don't know what. So, I'm not sure about whether I could handle him in a real fight." And that was the truth.

When I finished speaking, I noted that both Aela and the man had strange looks on their faces.

"I gotta go have a little bit of conversation with him." Then he left the room.

"You were actually quite the thinker weren't you? Good. You need to have a good head on your shoulders in a hunt. You will make a good Companion. Let us hung together sometime. But for now, let's have Farkas show you where you will be resting your head." Then she stuck her head out the room and shouted. "Farkas!"

A few moments later, footsteps were approaching. Then, the man among the trio I met before came.

"Did you call me?"

"Of course I did, icebrain. Show this new blood where the rest of the whelps sleep."

"New blood?" Then he noticed me. "Oh, hello. I'm Farkas. Come, follow me."

I followed him as he introduced the place.

"Skjor and Aela like to tease me, but they are good people. They challenge us to be our best. Nice to have a new face around. It gets boring here sometimes. I hope we keep you. This can be a rough life. The quarters are up here. Just pick a bed and fall in it when you're tired. Tilma will keep the place clean; she always has. Alright, so here you are." We entered the sleeping quarters. "Come to me or Aela if you're looking for work. Once you've made a bit of a name for yourself, Skjor and Vilkas might have things for you to do. Good luck. Welcome to the Companions." He said and left.

Thus began my time in Jorrvaskr as a Companion.

-1 year later-

"Seriously, how are these torches still lit even after all these years? Is someone routinely going through all the ancient burials and tombs to keep them lit?"

It has been a year since I joined the Companions and it has been going pretty good so far.

At first it was only a few odd jobs like beating someone who has been making trouble around the Whiterun Hold, after a few odd jobs like that I started to get bandit camp clearing quests and after that came the troublesome giants.

And then I was given the task of entering ancient burials and tombs to gather the fragments of a legendary battle-axe Wuuthrad whenever I was on a quest if I chanced upon them.

I've cleared quite a few dungeons but had no luck so far. I was currently in a similar dungeon North of Windhelm.

It was called Sivdur's Respite by the locals. The story behind is that a legendary nordic hero Sivdur was buried in this place with his beloved sword.

I don't get why nobody has excavated his tomb yet but oh well.

It was always the same. Draugr's filling the halls, some traps here and there and a final draugr who was stronger than the rest. And then it was over. I got used to it after all this time. But each and every time, I wondered how the torches were still lit.

Anyways, I started blasting.

I had my two trusted falchions in my hands and breezed through the draugrs filling the halls.

After all this time, their enchantments diminished quite a bit so I had Master Gyron recharge them, for a price of course. Soul gems required for recharging enchanted equipment cost quite a bit after all.

After clearing the halls, I came upon a locked door. There were two altars on both its sides.

It was quite clear that there was a mechanism for opening the door and likely it required some specific items too. But I had no time for that.

So, I took a deep breath. And,

"Fus!" Shouted.

*Boom!

The door was thrown from its hinges after getting struck with a mighty force.

"Heh. It always works."

The Shout or Thu'um or Stormvoice or simply The Voice, whatever you would like to call it was something I learned during this year.

I kept thinking about the words I heard from the dragon I saw in Helgen and noticed that they were somewhat familiar to me.

I remember the first time I used the Fire Breath shout.

I simply uttered a word and almost started a forest fire.

I had learned a few more shouts from the dungeons I entered since there were Word Walls at the deepest rooms in the dungeons sometimes.

Master Gyron said that those were built by the ancient dragons to teach their worshippers the Thu'um. And he said that I was exceptionally gifted in the Way of the Voice more so than the sword and the arcane.

Normally it would have taken people a lifetime to learn a shout if they were not gifted, but I could understand them after a look.

And the Shout I was most familiar with was the Unrelenting Force shout, which I knew two words of.

All the shouts were composed of three words, and it was at the third word that power instantly spiked up.

Take this door for example; I could destroy a door with almost 30cm thickness and an enchanted one on top of that, with a word from the shout. With two words, there was no dungeon that could hold me. And with three words, I could turn this whole dungeon into rubble.

And the reason why I was most familiar with it was because of my original spell Magicka Burst.

They worked on the same principles, Push.

And after learning the shout, my understanding of Push was taken to another level.

I could use Magicka Burst with a frightening precision. The cost stayed the same, but I could do more tricks now.

Like focusing Magicka Burst on an enchanted weapon 'Pushes' the enchantment out and they become ranged attacks. I could fire flying arcs and beams from my falchions.

And another thing I could do with Magicka Burst is that I could increase my power and defense with it.

By expelling the magicka from my arm at the point of contact with the enemy increases my strength exponentially.

Same went for my defense. By expelling magicka at the point of contact from my body, I could soften the blows until they didn't even leave a scratch.

Well…the same couldn't be said for my armor though so I opted for dodging instead.

After breaking the door, I headed downstairs and entered another hall filled to the brim with draugrs.

I took out a few magicka potions from my storage and chugged them while dodging and attacking the undead.

I didn't use much magicka previously, so 4 potions were enough.

I did a quick work of the draugrs and looked around. There were two rooms, one on the right and one on the left but ahead of me was the continuation of the hall.

I noticed the traps planted in the ground on the way to the hall and chose that side as my direction.

The fire traps activated as soon as they were hit with the slightest pressure.

But they were useless against me. With a burst I disappeared from my location and crossed the traps and went through a set of double doors.

There were stairs leading down again so I did just that.

There was another hall filled with draugrs.

"Seriously, I'm getting tired of this."

After taking care of them, I descended a spiral stairway until I reached a set of iron doors.

I pushed with a little force and they opened easily.

From the looks of it, this was the final room.

There were three tombs, a word wall behind them and what I currently focused on was the table right in front me.

There sat a golden katana radiating an aura of fire.

I stored my falchions in the storage and grabbed the katana.

With a schink sound, the blade was out of the scabbard.

And I instantly fell in love.

It was an amazing craftsmanship. The blade looked beautiful with its golden color and the edges were still in pristine condition even after being in this tomb for who knows how long.

I placed the scabbard on my hip and looked towards the tombs that were suddenly opened.

Two deathlords arose from their grave.

'Now this is troublesome.'

Without waiting for them to completely rise from their grave, I rushed forward.

I swung my new blade towards the neck of a one but it looked like it anticipated my attack.

{Feim!}

My blade phased through its ethereal form. Without losing my composure I sent a fiery arc towards the other one but it was blocked with a shield, likely enchanted.

The reason why Deathlords are troublesome is that they know a few shouts. Draugr Lords do too but they only have one or two which makes them quite easy compared to these guys.

I faced the Deathlords a few times before but never two at the same time.

While one was in Ethereal Form, I focused on the other one since there was nothing I could do to it.

It had became immaterial and as long as didn't willing interact with the material plane, I couldn't touch it. Well, as long as its time didn't run out obviously. You couldn't stay immaterial forever.

I knew that shout shout too. Ethereal Form. One moment you 'IS' then instantly you become 'ISN'T'.

And while you are in ethereal form, magicka regenerates much faster.

But enough about that, I had two troublesome enemies to take care of.