I wondered if righteousness was greater than a relationship with somebody.

...if Lydia was my friend.

...if I was killing-of-the-innocent, Dark Brotherhood-worthy. Nah, get that 'What is the greatest illusion?' 'Innocence my brother,' mess out of my mind. But I wasn't bad, either, was I?

...was all of Uthgerd's feelings faulty? I may not be, and I feel I'm not, based off that fact, a hard-core murderer. It could've been all in her head: she just got the wrong idea. I'll have to avoid her and Hilde, though, but other than that I hope I don't make things worse inside of Riverwood.

Better things ahead.

* * *

Camp Helgen was almost my mistake for the site of a Dark Brotherhood Sacrament. Two bloody bodies impaled upon two sticks, one body for each - the bodies very mangled-looking - at the door were our welcoming guests. I thought that would happen to us. I looked back at the very unwelcoming guest, a naked corpse, behind us that I just bested upon our visit here. He, and two other bandits, had popped out upon sight of us, Yet we didn't get sacrificed in front of them. And I still didn't know who to thank - Akatosh; Alduin?

She marched into the door of Helgen upon my tiny advancement, now that the bandits outside were dead. I was surprised when she drew her arrow again, however. By the time I drew my sword to kill another emerging bandit from the camp, she'd slain...I don't know how many, but everyone on our side of the encampment was dead.

I scoured their camp after their bodies, and met a group of bandits crawling from the door of a watchtower within the same camp, before us. It's watchman at the top she'd already murdered a few minutes ago when we entered. Now, by the time the rest of the bodies inside it had crashed into the space of outside to kill us intruders, their souls had suddenly vanished from their carcasses via our warrior's will. This was leaving us an opening to advance to the top of the tower.

I stepped over those forsaken bandit corpses and grabbed a few bottles of health and stamina potions once inside the tower.

I never noticed her strength before. The stairs pounded into me while I marched up them, however, and made me forget her strength and instead focus on my present weakness. My knees would've busted if we hadn't surfaced to the top tier of the tower, yet. But, us finally up there, she whistled, "There's a chest."

"Yeah. I know. There usually is one up these towers," I said, bending down to pick the lock. I didn't know why anyone wanted to mass-produce lockpicks, telling that someone could use them with great skill: maybe it was the thieves' guild's doing. Which, to me, was still weird. Competition didn't get any easier when one was lending someone all the tools to have that someone compete against them with.

The chest gave way to gold and a pretty, shiny, expensive gem. "Oooh." I took it all, except for the fur armor, again, and bent down painfully again to rest because I just might cave in on myself from all my loot.

I gave a bag to Lydia, and she eyed it before lugging on the weight. "I am definitely sworn to carry all..this...burden." I grinned, watching her buckle slightly under the packages of loot. 'You'll get paid for this, just wait, you'll see.' But I never give my housecarls my gold. So maybe in armor, or weaponry, like how Uthgerd nicely stole my orschich warhammer and never gave it back, which, I must say, really wasn't a direct payment to her rather than  thievery. But at least it would weigh her down if she ever hostilely encountered me again.

The next logical place was Falkreath, since that's where we were ultimately traveling to reach. But we wondered down to a cave-like place. It wasn't far from Helgen: and therefore its location was creepy: many forts did not exist so approximately near each other.

I also expected an ambush, right away...because soon I found it was a mine, Embershard, by the courtesy of a small, earth-embedded sign at the entrance granted me. And my first experience at a mine, which was my first visit to Halted Stream, had ambushes both inside and out.

But, oddly, I didn't get attacked outside, here. And there weren't bodies strewn about the entrance, either, like when I'd slain the guards right outside the Halted Stream entrance.

Was this emptiness yet a sign of the living? Because it was so safe, it didn't ever get ambushed and therefore had everyone alive and inside? It was all so odd. I didn't think about it possibly being a place of living beings, though, until after the fact I saw someone living: it was just too quiet at first. After hearing a voice, it hit me: well, this place isn't entirely barren.

That moment was gained while we were extending our trek over a bridge which suspended itself over a green, almost gooey-seeming stream. "Hey, don't think I can't see you." Those words provoked the unsheathing of my sword that can absorb souls...a sword which I believe I found from Helgen but I wasn't entirely sure...but I was sure these filthy bandits souls had the ability to be absorbed as they weren't exactly pure.

Which reminded me, I was hunting deer and foxes with this thing as I came out here to these areas, so maybe I had it longer than I thought.

His mistake was to come forward, though; after Lydia knocked this bandit out, I found a gate near the site. There wasn't any interesting outlying materials besides maybe a lamp past the gate. But there was a lever, and sparking my interest, it resulted in me pulling it, activating another bridge to connect to this one's terminal end.

I froze in my tracks upon exiting the gated room: because now a bandit had come onto this bridge I was on because my genius self gave the bandit a way to enter on it since I just connected the bridges together. Shoot.

"Hey," he noticed me so late that I was at least able to off him: but now more of them came toward me, almost emerging from the darkness like flies off dead cattle.

I sliced one of them down because they weren't that fast.

"Hah!" I'd said in response to another his or her, I couldn't tell's, sluggishness, yet one slice to my own arm in response from a sneaky hitter behind me made me arch back in pain and hold my wound. I turned to face him just in time to block another one his blows with my good arm, as the other guy I just defeated crouched to his knees in agony.

Then the bandit in front of me touched and eyed the newly made scar I placed on him as a counter blow, matter-of-factly, and because he was obscuring his eyes from me for a second, that's when I plunged into his heart my few pounds of steel. Word of advice: don't speculate the battle or the outcome until you've won.

The sword glowed, lighting up the blood that was on it and my hands tingled as it vibrated full of energy, quite alien-like. Successionally, I felt the suppression of energy from the sword as the bandit's soul rejected capture from the designated soul gem in my pocket.

"Dang," I said, cutting down three more bandits until there was no one. I flicked the maroon substances off the steel and grinned to myself as I complimented my skills, now that there was no one to catch me off-guard.

Thought it was good to downgrade from an axe every so often. Even though, I still didn't get a soul..the things that drove the enchantments in my weapons, and the very thing I was using this sword for. I had got some earlier, though, simply from mercy-killing *wink, wink* petty-souled and common-souled animals. But I was hoping the sword would absorb some human souls.

Nope, it was actually only petty souls it absorbed so far I've been using it, I remember. And what a mean name for animal's souls that is! But particularly, I'd gotten a little confused because one of the petty souls fit into my only common soul gem, today. I was excited, but wondered what it takes to get a common soul, or what one was.

Anyway, gaining more souls and the whole gimmick could wait: I'm also wielding this sword because I want to practice my one-handed weaponry. So, what if I couldn't conquer the soul-catching art in my first day? At least I could manage successfully killing via a lighter weapon, so I should be immensely proud of myself for it.

Sashaying over to the gate I'd just left moments earlier, I placed a hand on my hip and gouged curious eyes into Lydia as she sifted through the drawers inside the little gated area until she slowly stopped upon seeing the not-so-happy person looking at her. She straightened up army-like. Her arms then glued to her sides. Her head snapped up to me, too, directly. "Let's go," I responded, seemingly pleased of this more appropriate behavior. I noticed her eyebrow go up at the cut that was on mine.

I didn't bug her for it verbally, though, since I knew that I actually could hold up for myself without her, which was a fact I was rather prideful about.Though the k.o. power she'd demonstrated on a good amount of carcasses of men and women of Skyrim showed she probably did have a tad, just maybe a tad, more strength and battle experience than I even did.

Hm, hm, hm, I smiled, cheekily, and laughed to myself, trying to see what other challenges I could put her through in this mine.