After the rush of consuming the dragon’s soul and letting
out her first shout, Katnys needed some answers, but she was eager to get to
Windhelm to continue her personal war against the Empire. This “dragonborn” stuff seemed like a lot of
Nord nonsense that would only distract her from her mission, but she couldn’t
deny what was happening to her.
In the midst of this internal debate, a new thought dawned
on Katnys: if she was going to take on the Empire, she would need all of the
power she could muster. She had a
dedicated, like-minded follower in Jenassa, and was earning friends wherever
she went, but what if all of that wasn’t enough? Her skills, her allies, and her rage were
strong, but could they alone make the Empire pay for its treachery? Perhaps this “dovahkiin” business could
provide the means for the destruction of the Empire.
With these thoughts in mind, Katnys and Jenassa reported
back to Balgruuf, followed his directions to Ivarstead, and then climbed the
7000 steps to High Hrothgar. While the
Greybeards and their monastery were impressive enough, Katnys could never
quite take their pious detachment seriously, and just wanted to get on with
it. After all, here was this group of
men who possessed immense power, but remained secluded and aloof from the world
around them. Their homeland was under
attack by both the Legion and the dragons, but they just wanted to meditate on
their mountaintop. Katnys resolved to
jump through their hoops, learn what she needed to learn, and move on.
It therefore came as a profound disappointment when she
found Delphine’s note instead of the Horn.
Once again, she would be forced to delay her trip to Windhelm and go
down yet another rabbit hole. As it
turned out, however, she didn’t mind this detour quite so much. Like Katnys, Delphine was a woman of guile
and action, so following her to Kynesgrove seemed less pointless than delving
into the Greybeards’ dusty dungeons.
Sure, Delphine tended to go on about the Dragonborn and all that, but if
what she was saying about the Blades was true, then Katnys needed to be a part
of that for two reasons: 1.) a cadre of dragonslayers would be a valuable tool,
and 2.) if the Blades had, indeed, protected the Emperor before the Great War,
Katnys needed to keep them from returning to that role.
All plotting aside, the encounter with Sahloknir and Alduin
at Kynesgrove unsettled Katnys. Once
the shock of seeing Alduin again wore off, she had to wrap her mind around a
few disconcerting facts:
- Alduin was raising dragons from the dead with his Thu’um, while Katnys could barely push people around with hers. Had she bitten off more than she could chew?
- If Delphine was to be believed, the Thalmor were behind all of this, and now Katnys would have to infiltrate the Thalmor Embassy. Ambushing a small group of Justiciars is one thing, but this might be more than she could handle.
- A few days ago, Katnys was a lone Dunmer just trying to spill some Imperial blood in memory of her sister. She now found herself in the middle of a civil war, a political conspiracy, and some kind of crazy prophesy – none of which she had in mind when she and Prym left Hammerfell.
Hammerfell. It was
that last thought that drove her back to Whiterun. After returning the Horn to the Greybeards
and enduring their pompous (though admittedly impressive) Dovahkiin ceremony,
Katnys decided to return to Whiterun to talk to the Redguards she had seen
hanging around the front gate. Before, she
had been in too much of a hurry to speak with them, but now that she needed
some time to think, a conversation with some Alik’r warriors might help her
regain her footing.
