The Jarl of Riften

Allysian Liore - Imperial

Retracing her route back to Shor's Stone proved uneventful for Allysian. Her only encounter was with a pair of hungry wolves that weren't much of a test with her mace. She didn't have time to skin the wolves, so she left the carcasses along the roadside for other predators and scavengers to feed on.

Upon entering Shor's Stone, she was once again greeted by Filnjar who offered her some bread, eidar cheese and wine after her six hour trek. Sylgja, emerging from the mine to take her lunch, joined them. Ally gave Sylgja the package of baked treats from her mother which the three of them shared. Sylgja offered Ally an heirloom silver necklace as thanks, but Ally refused, she was happy to have helped. With no other business in Shor's Stone, Ally bid her friends farewell and headed back to Riften.

Ally took a wide berth around Fort Greenwall, not wanting to attract the attention of any more bandits especially in the bright light of midday. She returned to Riften without incident. Ally grew more and more confident navigating this area of Skyrim known as The Rift.

Upon her return to Riften, she immediately sought out Balimund. He had just received the Ebony Ingot shipment from Shor's Stone a few hours ago and was already planning on putting it to good use.

"Not so easy to get rid of this pesky Imperial!" Ally exclaimed as she snuck up on the blacksmith.

"Heh, welcome home Ally," Balimund stopped his hammering and gave Ally a sweaty hug. "Thanks for the Ebony, it's rare I get the opportunity to work with this stuff, not many customers around here have the septims to make these types of weapons worth my while. I'll make something nice for you with it, but it'll take some time, I have a big order from the Jarl that I gotta get done. Oh, I called in a favor, got you this," Balimund retrieved a neatly folded brown cloak from atop the barrels in the corner of the shop.

Ally held it out in front of her, "Wow, this is exquisite! Where is this from?"

Balimund nodded over to the marketplace at Edda who was seated in the same place as the other day.

"Edda made this? Wow."

"Yeah, for some reason, I'm one of the few people she actually still remembers. She didn't want to sew it, but I convinced her with a couple of hot meals. I'm trying to get her back into sewing, but her heart isn't in it anymore it seems."

"That's a shame, it's really outstanding work."

"Yeah, well I figured it would help keep you warm out there."

"Thank you, it was extremely thoughtful. Hey, while I was out there, I picked up an iron battleaxe. I liked the size of it, but it was a bit much for me to swing. Any suggestions?"

"Hmm, I could come up with something. Come back in an hour or so, I'll have something ready for you to try."

Ally left Balimund to his work and headed over to the marketplace. She stopped to chat with Edda and thank her for the cloak. Unfortnately, this wasn't one of Edda's better days. She was incoherent and a little rude. She would randomly yell at others going about their day, it made Ally really uncomfortable to be standing near her. Ally placed a handful of septims on Edda's woven mat and continued to browse the marketplace before returning to The Scorched Hammer.

"Here you go," said Balimund, offering Ally an extremely large sword. "I took some weight off of the blade, made it a bit shorter, dug the fuller a bit deeper, hollowed out parts of the pommel and grip also. Made the cross-guard a bit smaller as well. It's still fairly well balanced and durable. Should work nicely. I'm guessing you've never used something like this before."

"Not in any sort of battle, no."

"Okay, well let me show you some basic stuff, I'm no expert when it comes to combat, life expectancy is longer for blacksmiths," said Balimund with a wink.

Ally and Balimund spent a little bit of time down in his basement going over basic maneuvers, attacks, blocks, and counters. The sword fit perfectly and Ally swung it confidently.

"I want you to go see my friend Torbjorn Shatter-Shield up in Windhelm. I heard he's going through some hard times, but he's an expert with a two-handed blade. I'll sleep better at night knowing that he's trained you. Also, go see Wylandriah up at Mistveil Keep, she's the Court Mage here in Riften. She's a bit eccentric, but she can show you a thing or two about magick. Personally, I'm a bit leery of the stuff, but it's a good thing to know, ask her to teach you some restoration techniques. Well I'd better get back to work, that order isn't going to finish itself. Wanna meet for dinner? Same time, same place?"

Ally thanked Balimund for the weapon, trading in her iron mace and agreed to meet up for dinner. Ally always had an interest in magick, but just never got around to pursuing it. Learning a bit of Restoration was a good idea considering she's spending so much time outside of town alone.

Remembering her promise to Anneke, Ally headed over to Mistveil Keep to see the Jarl. Ally had never met a Jarl before and was a little surprised that Riften's Jarl was a woman, Laila Law-Giver. Ally was equally surprised that the Jarl's were open to speak with just about any of their citizens without fear. The burly bodyguard that loomed nearby was a great deterrent.

Ally spoke with Laila for a few minutes, explaining to her about the Black-Toes. The Jarl was already well aware of the Black-Toes expanding turf and even handed Ally an official bounty letter. Ally asked if the Jarl could commit some of her town guard to take care of the problem, but the Jarl refused. "With the civil war raging across Skyrim along with the new threat of Dragons, I can't afford to send anyone away, I'm already stretched thin as it is," was the Jarl's reply.

Ally now had three known locations of Black-Toe bandits: Fort Greenwall, Uttering Hills Camp, and now Treva's Watch. All three locations had to be dealt with. Confused on what to do, she decided to take Balimund's advice and learn a bit of magick from Wylandriah, the Court Mage.

Ally entered the Court Mage's chamber adjacent to the Jarl's receiving room, a robed woman was standing over an enchanting table muttering something about some lost spiders. "Excuse me, Wylandriah?" Ally said meekly.

"I have to remember, ward first, then summon. Oh, I'm sorry, didn't see you there! Excuse my disorganization, but I'm in the middle of some delicate experiements," said the mage.

"I was wondering if you could teach me some basic Restoration magick?"

"Oh why certainly! Restoration is great for anybody, as a member in good standing of the College of Winterhold, I am obligated to teach anyone interested a basic spell such as this. Do you have any experience with magick?"

"No, I do not, sorry."

"No need to apologize, very well, shall we get to it?"

For the next several hours, Wylandriah worked with Allysian to tune her body with the raw energy flowing from Aetherius. By the end of the session, Ally was fairly adept at calling upon the magick within her. She went from healing pin pricks to small cuts, amazed at how the magick poured into her wound and sealed it, good as new. She cursed herself for not learning this at an earlier age. Ally thanked Wylandriah for her teachings and purchased a spell tome from her that granted stronger and quicker levels of healing energy. She promised to study the tome on her travels.

With the sun having set, Ally headed over to the Bee and Barb to meet Balimund for dinner.