They strip her naked and tie her to a stake.

 

One of them brandishes a knife and says "let's slit her throat for Potema!"

 

"No," says another. "She'll make a good sacrifice, but let the high priest decide when and how."

 

 

Well that's a relief. She gets to live. For now.

 

The one who stopped the guy with the knife sends the others back upstairs to their posts, except one "report to the high priest."

 

"What will you do?"

 

"I will assess the captive and interrogate her."

 

 

He doesn't interrogate her. Instead the cultist rapes her with great glee. Still, she reflects, how different is it from what she would've had to put up with if she'd become a prostitute as she'd initially planned?

 

 

"You stay here. I'll be back," he says with a satisfied grin before heading back up the stairs. He takes all her stuff too, presumably to rifle through it at leisure.

 

He's tied her to the pole again, but the knots aren't that tight and after a while Godis manages to wriggle free. She spares a grateful thought to the times they played "rescue the maiden" back in the village. For some reason she was always the fair maiden to be tied up and rescued. Godis didn't mind, and she didn't mind when the boys "accidentally" squeezed her boobs back then. She did learn to wriggle her way out of knots just to pass the time. Sometimes boys noticed and the knots got very for a while tight - tighter than this cultist's knots - but in the long run she always found a way to get out. Then her captors would try to catch her, wrestle her down, and tie her back up again. She always made sure they'd catch her....

 

So she's free... now what?

 

She could turn and run. Godis is pretty sure she saw Lady Katheryn turn and flee now that she thinks about it... but Maya is still up ahead. What happened to her, she wonders?

 

In the end she resolves to press forward - at least until she finds some clothes. She imagines wandering the byways and highways of Haafingar stark naked. That won't end well for her she's sure, so at least she should get some clothes.

 

Forward it is, carefully on her hands and knees, but forward.

 

 

A dead draugr gives up an ancient bow and quiver of arrows... the clothes is too old, crumbling and tearing when she tries to take them.

 

 

Alas, poor Maya!

 

A bit further ahead, Godis finds Maya's dead body. She died fighting, but in the end she was brought down.

 

Godis takes a moment to remember her companion - Maya's confidence, her bravery, and her kindness towards a young woman from the countryside. But Godis is not a sentimental woman. Life and death are simple facts to be accepted and living must keep going. She strips Maya of her valuables and armour and weapons. Maya won't need them now.

 

If she stops the cultists that will be a kind of vengeance for her companion. That would be fitting.

 

Godis continues forward.

 

 

Godis fights hard. Maya's blade is enchanted too. It's very effective.

 

Perhaps it's easier to be brave and confident and kind when you're wearing high quality Elvish armour and wield a magic blade. Godis certainly feels braver and more confident. Then she kills the cultist who raped her. He doesn't beg for mercy. He dies too fast.

 

 

In spite of her best effort and Maya's armour and weapons Godis is hurt. These cultists aren't pushovers.

 

 

Once more Godis is forced to yield. She's near the actual ritual site and one of the senior cultists come down to inspect her.

 

 

"You're going to suck my cock!" The senior cultist steps up and shoves his dick into her mouth.

 

Godis sucked a fair number of cocks back at the village. She was pretty good at it too, she thought, and it was kind of fun. Certainly she was popular with the boys.

 

Sure this guy is a crazy evil cultist or whatever, but sucking cock is sucking cock so she sets to it. It's a bit challenging because her arms are tied and she can't really reposition her body, but on the other hand it's pretty obvious that this guy hasn't had any action for a while. If he joined the cult to get laid it evidently didn't work out.

 

It doesn't take long before he ejaculates massively in her mouth and on her face and neck. Godis smiles at him distractedly the way she used to smile at the village boys, suggesting she's somehow swept along and can't conceal her enjoyment. It's not exactly acting as she does like sucking cock, but she makes sure he notices that his cock had that effect on her.

 

The cultist seems a bit surprised - pleased even - at her apparent pleasure. "We have to get back to the ritual", he mutters and leads off the other cultists.

 

 

The way they tied her is very uncomfortable. Cruel, even...

 

 

... but it doesn't take Godis too long before she wiggles out of the restraints.

 

They were in such a hurry they even left her gear behind. She puts on Maya's armour and creeps up the stairs, the volume of the ritual chanting and screaming growing louder with each step. She is near.

 

 

Godis sneaks up on the cultists and murders several of them before they know what hit them. Summoning ancient demons is apparently very distracting. Luckily.

 

The senior cultist lies dead at her feet. She can still taste the flavour of his sperm in her mouth.

 

They're all dead. The ritual has been stopped.

 

 

As she loots the cultist's stash (as one does), a wave of euphoria sweeps over Godis. She did this. Like the heroes of the stories she is battered and bruised, but she stand victorious. She stopped the evil. She did it, not Lady Katheryn (who fled) nor Maya (who died), but Godis the village girl.

 

It's a great feeling.

 

To top it off she finds a shield that's obviously enchanted.

 

 

Snack break.

 

 

Still riding the endorphin high of her success, Godis leaves the cave and wanders into the starry Haafingar night.

 

 

... she comes to a fork in the road.

 

One way is the path back to Solitude. She can report on her success at Wolfskull cave and on the fates of her companions... and then decide what to do next. Maybe try to get that prostitution license she needed? She'll need to get armour and weapon licenses though, or they'll confiscate Maya's armour and sword... and the magical shield. Would she want to sell them? They ought to be worth a fair penny.

 

The other way lies... who knows what? The sign says Dragon Bridge, but she's never heard of the place. That way lies adventure.

 

Which should she choose?