Traveling through The Elder Scrolls: Skyrim

As soon as Danger and I arrived at Helgen Town, we split up according to the plan we had discussed on the way. He went directly to Dad and Rigel to discuss the attack plan on Howling Bastion. I first handed the obtained Septim to Lund, and then went to find Barbas. Although he always appeared in the image of a sloppy big dog, he was half a demon after all. In his eyes, the dragon was just a flying lizard. It was not certain whether he was willing to be a guarantor for me.

Lund was shocked that I could raise such a huge amount of money so quickly, and he even suspected that I had borrowed from loan sharks. In order to reassure him, I explained the source of the funds in detail. When he heard that I was deceived by the tiger people and failed to sign a contract at a higher price, he made a different judgment from Danger.

"Locke, I don't think this is necessarily a bad thing. Don't rush to retaliate against them like Lord Danger said. Instead, you can cooperate more with the tiger people. They took advantage this time, but they may accept a loss next time. These guys travel far and wide, and have many channels that are inconvenient for us to contact. It will be useful to keep them. You can even let them play my current role and help you deal with some difficult matters. Anyway, they have such a bad reputation that they don't care if more people scold them. If they really cause big trouble, you..."

He made a chopping gesture.

Lund issued receipts for me and Danger, and said that since our donations were voluntary, he would have to wait for the Baron to confirm whether to repay the money. Of course, I immediately pointed out to him that it was a loan, not a donation. After leaving Lund's office, I was at a loss. If I wanted to find Barbas, I had to find Helgi first. But this unlucky girl disappeared as soon as she returned to the town because she was angry with me. Now a day and a half has passed, and I have no idea how to find her. She was followed by a one-meter-tall dog. I'm afraid Eddie would not allow these two guys to stay in the hotel. Although Helgen Town is not very big, it has many residents at the moment, and many people are crowded in a makeshift simple wooden house or a tent. I can't do a carpet search of every household, right?

After much thought, I decided to go find Eddie first, confirm Helgi's residence, and then go over there to stake out. I had always quarreled with Eddie in the last few meetings, which had left me with a psychological trauma. In order to prepare myself physically and mentally for the next meeting, I decided to go back to my room first, put away the contract signed with Resard, and have a few sips of wine, which would both activate my thinking and prevent my mouth from drying out when I quarreled.

As a result, I was startled when I entered the room. Helgi and Babas were lying side by side on the bed, flipping through the book on the bedside table. When she saw me coming in with a spear, the little girl immediately got down to the ground and studied the contents of the book.

"Brother, you're back! Do you want me to polish your spear?"

"Uh... not yet... not yet... Helgi, why are you in my room?"

Helgi sighed and sank back onto the bed.

"Aunt Annis came to town and asked me where you were, so I came here to wait for you."

"Ah? Where is she? Take me to find her."

I can't figure out why Annis came to me. Shouldn't she be with Moira at this moment, trying to seize control of the Snake Cliff Ridge tribe? But I dare not let such a time bomb wander around outside. This woman is arrogant and domineering. If she conflicts with the residents of the town, it will be difficult to handle.

Helgi was very surprised by my "enthusiasm" because before that, Annis and I had competed for the right to educate the little girl, and I sold the Snake Cliff Ridge tribe to Moira on my own initiative, so our relationship was not harmonious. She quickly reminded me that my aunt came uninvited this time and seemed to be in a bad mood. Maybe she wanted to capture her and bring her back to the tribe to live. I have never cared about Helgi's life in the town. Now listening to this girl's self-narration, I know that she had visited Ilandur as early as the first day she came here. The dark elves suggested that she spend three years to enrich herself and make plans for the future when she turns sixteen. So Helgi followed Annis to learn the knowledge passed down by word of mouth by the people of the Reach, and learned the book knowledge of the Nords in the town. At the same time, she looked for various opportunities to expand her knowledge and became good friends with Hamin, Lucia and others of the same age. If she returns to the tribe, it will be too difficult to slip out from under the eyes of the two aunts Moira and Annis in the future. The little girl almost begged me to withstand the pressure and not let Annis take her away. She also took the initiative to apologize to me and promised that she would never get angry with me because of Babas again.

From my personal point of view, I will definitely not sit idly by and watch Helgi being taken away. I have a ready-made excuse. On the one hand, Helgi chose to stay, and on the other hand, Annis and I had a consensus that this was also for Helgi's better growth. This time I also have to find a way to prevent Annis from taking advantage of Helgi's opportunity to learn magic from her and detain her. The crow hag Moira obviously likes Helgi very much. Maybe she really sent Annis to arrest people this time.

We found my old aunt in the Reachman settlement. She was sitting at the door of a house, helping to sew animal skin clothes while chatting with the residents. The house was inhabited by Reachman who had escaped from the Touching Rock area. There were three families in total, four elderly people with five children. The only young person was Winnie, who had escorted Helgi to learn magic. The girl was only sixteen or seventeen years old and was now a member of my father's guard. I was not familiar with most of the Reachman refugees. I was just an acquaintance and could not even call their names. However, they were quite close to me, especially families with children like this one. If there had not been a tent outside the city of Falkreath that night, I don't know how many of these young lives would have died.

Annis stood up and said goodbye to everyone. She was polite and gentle, and she was completely different from the fierce look she had when she met me alone. She didn't say anything about the stories the refugees told her about my deeds, but on the way back to the castle, she couldn't help but complain about the difficult situation of these Reach refugees.

"Indeed, and in the next month, their lives will be even more difficult."

Annis opened her eyes as wide as possible to express his surprise and anger at such a frank answer.

"Why are you glaring at me? Isn't it because the Snake Cliff Ridge tribe refuses to cooperate with us to attack the invading imperial army? Only by driving them away can we all live in peace."

"I'm here for the tribe's business."

Helgi heaved a sigh of relief when she learned that Annis was not coming to arrest her, and took the initiative to make pine needle tea for my aunt and me. Annis introduced their situation to me.

Moira had always believed that with her status and strength, the Snake Cliff Ridge tribe would definitely surrender at the sight of her, but who would have thought that this group of rabble, who did not even have a Black Wing Witch, would not only refuse to surrender to her, but would even behead the witch who came to accept the surrender. Moira certainly knew that it was impossible to storm a fortress with only five people, especially since the other side had a Thorn Heart. Once that guy got close to her, not to mention five people, I'm afraid fifteen people would not be enough for him to chop. Although she was very unwilling, Moira had to admit that she needed help, and I had promised in person that I could bring a few people to support her. As long as these few people could hold off the Thorn Heart for a few minutes, her magic could blow them all to death, and the others would not be a concern.

So Annis was sent to order me to send troops to support. Perhaps it was because of my undisguised gloating that made my old aunt unable to suppress her anger. She accused me of being self-righteous and telling Moira about the Snake Cliff Tribe. It is said that Annis can participate in the transformation ceremony of the crow hag with Helgi's mother, which shows that he still has a certain strength, but I don't know why he looks at the problem so superficially, so I had to analyze the current situation in detail for her.

"You know, Helgi's sister became the matriarch through conspiracy and betrayal. There must be people in the tribe who despise her behavior. If she is challenged at this time, she may not be able to gather everyone's strength. But she and Zoltan are still very young. If we let them hold power and slowly eliminate dissidents, it will be much more difficult for them to regain the tribe after they have established a firm foothold in the future. So it is much better to act early than late.

"But Helgi is too young. Even if he can defeat them by chance, it will be difficult for him to secure the throne of the clan leader. Moira is very suitable. She is already a black-winged witch. She is very powerful and can deter those with bad intentions, but she does not have many confidants. Besides, she must be around 40 years old, right? She is no longer young. Even if she has her own daughter after becoming the clan leader, a child who is more than ten years younger than Helgi may not be more talented than her. Can she compete with your precious niece in the future?

"The situation is even better now. Moira can't take over the tribe on her own, so even if she succeeds with my help, her prestige will definitely be insufficient. She must rely on me as an external aid to control the tribe, so what are you worried about? She is just temporarily managing the family business for Helgi."

Annis laughed and scolded me for being a "cunning man" like Zoltan, but her attitude was obviously much more relaxed, because my statement had made it clear to her that we were all "family members" and were all planning for Helgi. Of course, I would not tell her that these words were only used to temporarily evade her. I did not intend to let Helgi become a crow hag. Moira and Annis were both around 40 years old, which could be considered as the prime of life in the previous life, but in the other world, this age was even beyond the average life expectancy of humans in Skyrim. After they died, wouldn't Helgi be able to do whatever he wanted?

And I am even less of a "family member". What I need to do is to support a chief who is close to Falkreath, so as to pull the Snake Cliff Ridge tribe onto our chariot, and then plan the hilly areas in the east of Reach and the west of Whiterun, which is the gateway to the Empire camp. From this perspective, it may not be appropriate to support Moira as the chief. Her own strength is too strong and difficult to control. But helping her attack the Sun Garden Fortress may be a good opportunity. Before taking action, I need to contact this crow hag. If she still holds the arrogant ideas of the traditional Reach people, then don't expect to get any support. And I also need to use Annis to balance Moira's power. She is the sister of the former female chief, Xinanmon, and she should still have some connections in the tribe, otherwise she would not be able to understand Helgi's situation and write letters to encourage her to leave the tribe. As long as Helgi is in her hands, Annis will naturally tend to my side.

"However, we should still pay attention to Helgi's safety. She doesn't have the means to protect herself yet, so I suggest that she live in Helgen Town, away from the Snake Cliff Ridge Tribe."

"Why? Moira admires Helgi's talent. If she were to personally guide him, Helgi would improve very quickly."

"Oh, how come you can't even figure this out? Moira certainly admires Helgi's talent, but at that time she was a sorcerer living in seclusion in the East Territory. If she really became the matriarch of the tribe, who do you think would be the biggest threat to her? Of course it would be Helgi, the daughter of the former tribe leader, a young sorcerer with outstanding talent. What's more, she has an aunt who is equally powerful and has been designated as the successor to the matriarch. It would be fine if Moira didn't have her own successor, but what if she had a daughter who was not very talented? Would she be able to let her daughter be a stepping stone for Helgi? Of course it would be more cost-effective to get rid of Helgi."

Anis gasped, her eyes fixed on me, so that she didn't notice Helgi coming in and pouring a cup of tea for each of us. The little girl was keenly aware that we were discussing something serious, and after pouring the tea, she tiptoed out.

"Will she... do that?"

"You bet she won't?"

Annis fell into deep thought. She subconsciously raised the cup of water beside her and took a big sip, then sprayed the tea all over the floor.