A Lovely Letter

After surviving Helgen, I took Hadvar's suggestion and made my way to Riverwood.  Upon entering the town, I met Sven, who told me all about his rivalry with Faendal for Camilla Valerius's affections.  I don't know whether it was because Sven was a fellow Nord, a very charming bard, or just the first friendly face I'd seen since Hadvar and I split up, but I liked him right away, and wanted to help.  I agreed to take his fake letter from Faendal to Camilla; it might be an act of deception, but all's fair, etc.  Very soon after meeting Sven, I ran into Faendal.  During my conversation with him, I was given the option of telling him about Sven's fake letter.  I didn't like the idea of lying to his face, so I chose to rat out Sven.

Obviously, there are several inconsistencies in my approach here.  I was comfortable enough with delivering the fake letter to Camilla, but not with hiding it from Faendal.  I agreed to help Sven, but then betrayed him fairly quickly.  Honestly, having just escaped an unjust execution, a surprise dragon attack, a bandit raid, and a pack of wolves, I wasn't really invested in what seemed like a high school love triangle.  Given the seemingly low stakes, I decided to be helpful and honest, even if these ideas contradicted each other at the next turn.

After informing Faendal of Sven's plan, Faendal asked me to deliver his own fake letter from Sven, hoping to turn the tables on his Nord rival.  My next task was to deliver the new fake letter to Camilla, but when I opened dialogue with her, my two options were to give her the letter, which was marked as "Lie," or tell her that the letter was a fake, written by Faendal to trick her.  I chose the latter, which turned Camilla against Faendal and toward Sven -- so, I ended up helping him after all.  [Interestingly, I was not given the option to expose both of them, although some players report that such a result is possible when you reject both men's requests then report to Camilla.]  When I reported back to Sven, he gave me some money and offered his services as a follower.  My further interactions with Faendal were less pleasant ("You want to talk to me?  After everything you've done?"), although I could still pay him for archery training.

As I reflected on this side quest, I realized a few unpleasant things.  Despite the fact that my actions were guided by a combination of apathy and a desire to be consistent in my responses, I was glad that I had sided with Sven.  He was a fellow Nord who lived with his mom while getting his bard career up and running.  Faendal was a wood elf with, to my ears, a minor superiority complex.  He called Riverwood "agreeable enough...for a Nord village," and was, in fact, fairly dismissive of all things Nord:

I didn't like Faendal, but I'm not sure how much of my dislike was due to his haughtiness and how much was owed to my own prejudice.  Not all Bosmer support the Thalmor, but Valenwood is a key part of the Aldmeri Dominion, so I was a bit suspicious of him to begin with.  Still, it was a low-impact side quest, so I didn't give it much thought afterward.

A few quests later, I began to feel the literal cost of living in Skyrim more acutely.  Aside from employing Sven as a pack mule to carry out the loot from the dungeons I had cleared (I let him keep some for himself as payment), I looked for alternate ways to earn money and find valuable items.  After hearing Faendal sneer at me for the umpteenth time, I decided pickpocket his house key and go to his home while he was out. As an accomplished hunter, he had amassed some valuable booty.  I managed to rationalize my theft of a few choice items by reminding myself what a jerk Faendal was to me and my Riverwood friend; he needed to be taken down a peg.

Not too long after I burglarized Faendal's house (without being caught, I should add), three thugs ambushed me as I left the Sleeping Giant Inn.  After defeating them, I discovered a contract one of them carried which read: "Here is the agreed upon amount. I expect you to faithfully carry out my request to teach a lesson to the thief Lothar Ironfoot. You need not kill him, but I have no qualms about it if you deem it necessary.
-- Faendal."  The Wood Elf had put a hit on me for some petty theft and, I suspected, ruining his chances with Camilla.  He chose not to confront me face-to-face nor to call the authorities, but rather to hire goons to take me out.  I could not let this stand.

I approached Faendal, but he said nothing about the contract, preferring his usual, brusque comment about "what you've done."  I paid him to train me in Archery, then plotted my next move.  I couldn't fight him in broad daylight, because I'd end up with a bounty and perhaps have to go to jail, so I waited for nightfall.  Around 2 A.M., while the Divines-fearing people of Riverwood slept, I snuck into Faendal's house, killed him in his sleep, and stole back some of my money. My second murder was even less defensible than the first.

It's not so much that I regret killing Faendal; he had tried to have me killed, and could well have done so again. It's not even the manner of his death that bothers me; there was no way I was going to jail for killing the elf who put a hit on me. What still sticks in my craw are the events leading up to killing him. Stealing Faendal's stuff was childish and petty -- not an act worthy of my background nor my aspirations. Had I just put up with Faendal's petulance, he would still be alive. A side quest involving a run-of-the-mill love triangle ended with a Bosmer's death, all because I was hard up for cash and couldn't let go of a slight.