I woke up in the middle of the night feeling restless and unsettled. The temple lights had been mostly extinguished, leaving only a few small candles to cast shadows about the hall. My motion also awakened Mother, who had been sleeping next to me, cuddled against my body.

 

"Daughter?" she asked blearily, "do you need something?"

 

I'd been having a strange dream. I was back in the Warrens, in that passage where the Argonian and his friends had ambushed me. But now I was tied up next to a fire pit. Unable to move, they had pointed and laughed, then drove a sharp iron pole into my rear, pushing it deeper and deeper until it emerged from my mouth. So transfixed, they hoisted me onto the waiting brackets and started roasting me over the fire.

 

"We'll feast well tonight, brothers," a balding man said as he looked down at me before continuing, "but save the best cuts for our Lady."

 

The other man, behind me and turning the spit with a hand crank, commented, "too bad Weylin couldn't be here, he'd have loved this rump."

 

 

"I think I just need a drink of water," I said, the troubling dream already starting to flee my mind and leaving me only with a general sense of unease. After a moment more, I added, "I can't sleep."

 

Mother rolled over, looking at me, then she glanced across the hall, where Jenassa was dozing on a chair. "Looks like everyone else is sleeping, or's gone down into the sanctum."

 

She sat up the rest of the way, so she was looking down at me now. "Can I ask you something, daughter?"

 

"Of course," I answered immediately. We were speaking in whispers, and the hall felt very still. Careful to not make too much noise, I also shifted until I could sit up on the bedroll.

 

"While you were recovering from the drugging, Sister Anwen examined the chamber pot you filled. She told me it was practically glowing with trapped power. I was curious it... how do I put this? While we have some privacy, while everyone's sleeping, would you let me taste your water? Fresh?"

 

I don't know why, after everything else I'd done in recent days, this took me aback. I think maybe it was because it felt disrespectful to mother to... well, to pee in her mouth. But on the other hand, I'd put my arm insider her up to the elbow, so this wouldn't be breaking new ground in terms of carnal knowledge. 

 

"If you don't want to, I'll understand, but..." mother began.

 

I held up a hand to stop her. "That's not it. I'd share my body with you however you wanted. Though... I think I really need that drink if I'm going to be providing for two."

 

We padded through the hall on bare feet, retrieving a jug of sacramental wine. The sweet libation settled my thirst, and the alcohol helped loosen me up. Soon I could feel the first signs of urgency in my belly, and I beckoned mother closer.

 

"Let's try to be quiet," she whispered, "for now I'd like this... experiment to be a secret. Now, just stand against the wall and raise up your rear end. I'll walk you through the rest."

 

I obeyed her, feeling one hand push me flat against the wall while her middle finger snaked between my legs to massage the rim of my vagina. I fought to stay silent as my body warmed, turning my head so I could push flat against the unyielding stone.

 

 

As I started to grow moist at her attention, mother gently turned me and began thrusting her fingers deep inside me, dragging her fingertips along the folds of my canal again and again, before leading forward to lick softly at my clitoris. I almost cried out, avoiding it only by biting down on the top of my hand. As I inched closer to orgasm, I felt a sudden and intense pang in my lower tummy, and an intense urge to let go. Crashing into my climax, Edippa gasped as steaming urine let loose along with my other, stickier fluids. She was only surprised for a moment though, before ducking her head down just a little and starting to greedily swallow my water. All throughout, and in spite of my muscles contracting hard with the pleasure, she continued thrusting her fingers into my depths.

 

At last, I felt the deluge trickle to a stream, and mother slowed her pounding. I knelt down, so we were face to face, and I could see her eyes were completely dilated.

 

 

"Amazing," she whispered, before wrapping her arms around me in a hug. I could smell the intense, musky odor of morning water on her breath, but I ignored it and returned the hug. Her breath was coming in long exhalations, as if she had just ran up the temple stairs.

 

"Your power," she started again, "it's unlike anything I have felt before."

 

"Is that so?" an unexpected voice questioned.

 

 

I turned to see a powerfully-built Nord woman watching us. Mother too, shifted in my embrace and turned her head towards the interloper.

 

"Sister Elizabella," she said quietly, "good evening."

 

"Good evening indeed, Sister Edippa. I take it you could not sleep?"

 

"I was restless after last night's events," she said, deadpan, "and so I took some time to tutor my daughter in our Lady's arts."

 

Elizabella seemed unconvinced. "Surely your choice of time and place had nothing to do with Sister Anwen's warning to not consume your daughter's... curious alchemy?"

 

Mother seemed to hang her head a little at that, but answered without hesitation: "I respect our sister, but I had to know. This is my daughter, and I need to understand the power she has been blessed with." 

 

Elizabella uncrossed her arms, allowing her large breasts to hang freely, and considered us. "I know you have been away for a long time, sister. And I know you had to play by a different set of rules to survive. But now you are back with us. Please do not take your elder sisters' warnings so lightly. I have to tell her, you know."

 

"I know. And please tell her I meant no disrespect... I just had to know."

 

The sister shook her head slowly at that, but relented in her questioning. "I'm not sure the temple life is right for you. Perhaps you're meant to live out in the world, instead of cooped up here. But either way, I'll bother you no further. Good night, sister."

 

Mother and I both wished her a good night as well. After she vanished behind the doors to the sanctuary, mother looked back to me and licked her lips before setting dilated, twinkling eyes on me.

 

"Thank you, daughter. It seems I may have invited some trouble with Sister Anwen, but now my suspicions are concerned."

 

"Tell me," I said.

 

"This power your body is infused with, the excess leaves your body with your waste. That much I think we proved for certain after your encounter with the mage. But it isn't just raw, undirected power. It has... properties." She turned her forearm towards me, though to my eyes it seemed unremarkable. "Before we began, I cut myself to test if your water had healing properties. That wound is completely gone now. Moreover, despite only having slept a few hours so far, I'm bounding with nervous energy and I can sense that my own reserves of magicka are completely restored." As she explained this, the speed of her speech increased bit by bit, until at the end one word was almost falling over the next.

 

With a deep breath, she stilled herself, focusing. "I need to understand your power better, more comprehensively. For the time being, would you consider either letting me drink from you when your needs arise, or filling bottles for me, like you did for Arcadia? We probably need to be discreet, at least around the temple, but I feel like Anwen isn't telling me everything she's learned and I have to understand."

 

I thought on that for a moment, then said. "Mother, you know I wouldn't deny you anything, but I'm not sure you're thinking clearly. You're eyes... are changed. Ask me again tomorrow, after you've rested."

 

"That's fair, daughter, that's fair."

 

We tried to return to our beds after that, but I couldn't sleep. Something was still eating at me, a sense that I needed to be active, doing something, not just lying around. And then my mind slipped back to the conversation with Eltrys. That, and what I'd heard that morning - about the Jarl's men sweeping the Warrens.

 

"Mother, are you still awake?" I asked.

 

Edippa snuggled closer, mouthing a sleep "yes," into my back.

 

"I want to go down to the Warrens. They'll be too many guards there, come morning. I want to look into this man Weylin. I'm not sure why, but I feel like this is something I need to do tonight. Will you come with me?"

 

She wriggled back from me before starting to sit up. "Of course, daughter. Let's wake Jenassa too - I think we'll want someone to protect us."

 

The Warrens were quiet when we arrived. Far fewer people milled about than the night before, and those that did watched us with apprehension. When I tried to speak to people, they brushed me off or refused to say more than one word answers. At length, one woman pointed me towards a door to get me to stop asking about Weylin. Reaching it, unsurprisingly we found it locked.

 

I looked to mother and Jenassa in turn. "Do either of you have lock picks?" I asked.

 

Mother shook her head but Jenassa huffed. "We don't need lockpicks. Stand back." As soon as I was clear of the door, she planted a solid kick on it, rattling the hinges before a second kick broke the lock.

 

The room within was squalid, with an uneven dirt floor and only the barest of furnishings. I searched about, checking a few containers, until I came to a chest in one corner. I looked through the contents, finding little of interest. A few coins, some animal pelts, and a girl's dress. That last item, however, was concealing more than its first impression revealed. When I moved the folded garment, I heard a crinkle of paper. I carefully unfolded the dress and hidden within I found a note.

 

 

I retrieved the journal and started reading. "You have been chosen to strike fear into the heart of the Nords. You know what to do." It was signed only, 'N'. 

 

I showed the note to Jenassa and she scowled. "That tells us next to nothing."

 

"Still," mother said, "it seems you were right to search sooner rather than later. I'm shocked the guards haven't ransacked this place already."

 

Having reached a dead end, we decided to return to the temple and discuss our next move. When we exited the Warrens, however, a torch-carrying man stopped us. Pointing to me, he said "you've been digging around where you don't belong. It's time you learned a lesson." 

 

"Who sent you?" I asked.

 

Stating the obvious, the man shot back, "someone who doesn't like you asking questions."

 

Before I could say more, he clenched his fist and swung a wide punch, striking me in the side of my head. I staggered, but kept my feed, doing my best to hit back. Then a solid punch hit me square in the nose, and sent me reeling. I saw the man approaching slowly, and then I watched him stagger to his knees as Edippa struck him hard on the back of his head.

 

Jenassa pushed past me and held the dazed man fast. "Quick," she hissed, "tie him up."

 

There wasn't much I could do in my current state of dress, but mother produced a length of silk rope and hog-tied the man at his wrists and ankles. "You'll regret this," he spat, "you bitches will regret this."

 

"Maybe," mother said, "but I think you'll be the one regretting assaulting my daughter. Now, who sent you?"

 

The man laughed, "as if I'd tell a harlot like you. Let me loose, now, or I'll call for the guards."

 

"Oh, is that so?" Jenassa said. "Well, if you won't talk to us, maybe there's a different way we can get our answers." Withdrawing a rag from her trouser pockets, Jenassa stuffed it in the man's mouth in a single fluid motion before tightening a leather strap around the back of his head. A moment later, I could see that the straps attached to a steel bit that filled the man's mouth and prevented him from calling out.

 

 

"Jenassa," I said, "remind me to ask you where you found a contraption like that."

 

The Dunmer laughed, "Oh, I think I have all kinds of stories to tell you. But later. Search him, see if he has any sign of who sent him."

 

"Mmmf, mmmmmf!" he protested as I started to check his various pouches and pockets. I found what I was looking for in a small leather satchel attached to his belt. The note went into a great deal more detail than the one in Weylin's room.

 

 

"The idiot came here to rough you up with a letter literally explaining his plan on his body? I think he deserves whatever he gets," mother intoned as she looked over my shoulder.

 

"Indeed..." Jenassa said dryly, "but I think we might know who our mysterious 'N' is. It seems we'll have more to do at the Inn than just asking about the dead woman." 

 

"You're both right," I said. "I think we're going to have a very interesting breakfast come sunrise."

 

"So what now," mother said, "do we kill him and throw him in the river?"

 

I shook my head slowly. "I don't think so. Look over there," gesturing to the far side of the bridge, several lollygaggers were watching us with great interest.

 

"It's your lucky day," I whispered in the man's ear, "you get to walk away from this. Are you going to behave yourself."

 

He nodded enthusiastically, and a moment later Jenassa ungagged him.

 

"If I were you," she menaced, "I'd leave town this very night and never come back." The warning delivered, Jenassa proceeded to untie mother's silk cords.

 

"Ugh, you mangy piece of pit bait," he grumbled, massaging his wrists while staring death at us. "Fine, but you'll get yours some day."

 

Before I could say more, torchlight cast over us, and a male voice called, "hold there, what's going on?"

 

Dressed in polished brass lamellar, the guard seemed distinctly displeased to be breaking up a fight in the middle of the night.

 

"This man punched my daughter, a Sister of Dibella, in the nose without any provocation," mother said, full of righteous outrage.

 

As this played out, our assailant pushed to his feet and broke away from us, vanishing into the shadows.

 

After a fast aborted effort to chase the man, the guard turned to me. "You might be telling the truth, or you might have been trying to kidnap the man. These people say you tied him up. I need you to come with me for questioning."

 

"Is this really neccessary," Jenassa asked. "Surely a neophyte, bared to please the Lady, would not try to kidnap or rob a man dressed in armor."

 

The guard laughed at that, "aye, maybe not, but you're not skyclad, nor your friend. How about we bring you all back to the jail for a nice body search, and we'll see if you've got any stolen goods on you."

 

When it became clear that our protestations weren't moving him, we followed the guard's lead. We didn't go to the garrison tower as I'd expected, but rather down into a large cavern that I had assumed contained one of the city's many silver mines. However, branching off from the entrance was a small garrison; once within, the guard shepparded us into a rather spacious holding cell.

 

As several other guards began questioning Edippa and Jenassa, the one who had led us in started rubbing his hands down my sides and underneath my breasts. The whole thing was absurd, of course: what exactly did he think he'd find hidden on my naked body? Still, he seemed to take great relish in his work, probably because it involved putting his hands all over a young woman.

 

 

Just as I was getting ready to protest at his groping, the man ordered me to bend over and spread my legs apart. Pressing his face in close, so much so that I could feel the steel bands of his helmet prushing against my cheeks, he began to carefully examine my hidden places. I could feel his hot breath on my vulva, and I have to admit the spectacle was getting me a little heated up. Be that as it may, I was anything but pleased with this treatment, especially as more men - these ones clearly just common mercenaries rather than city guards, came to gawk.

 

 

Finding nothing concealed between my legs, he said at length, "alright honey, that was fun, but you're dismissed."

 

"You heard the officer," one of the mercenaries said, landing a hard swat on my rear with his gauntleted hand, "get out of here."

 

When the three of us finally emerged from the mines, dawn was just breaking. I took a moment to help Jenassa straighten her armor, which the guards had apparently put a great deal of effort into examining, and then checked with mother to make sure she was alright. Nothing had been taken from them, other than a few hours of our valuable time and a bit of our dignity - indeed, I'm pretty sure the whole exercise was more for the amusement of the guards than for any legitimate purpose.

 

With the sky lightening, I led the way to Dryside, heading for the Silver Blood Inn.

 

 

Troubleshooting and Conflict Resolution

Ongoing SAW Pileup Fallout

During today's session, I observed continuing script lag. Review of the save file in ReSaver revealed over 35,000 instances of Lazy Item Hider's equipment management script. I shut of LIH, terminated its script instances, and allowed the suspended stacks to naturally purge. On my next playthrough, I will probably only use LIH for the player and for followers, to keep the script instancing load under control.

 

In the meanwhile, I've just learned that the author of SAW has released a modular version that allows for better tailoring of the world population, so this ought to save me a lot of time while I do my next iteration of the mod list after I finish this playthrough.