The Blade in the Grove

4E 201 | Late Hearthfire | Thirty-Two Days Since Arrival

Tsukihana found Sinding beside a weathered statue of Talos.

He had returned to human form and sat shaking beneath a torn blanket. His first question was whether anyone in Falkreath had died.

"No," Tsukihana said. "But a giant white stag wants your head."

Sinding laughed without humor. "Then Hircine has come personally to collect."

Voices echoed from the tunnels. Hunters called to one another, boots and hounds closing in.

Tsukihana offered a bargain. She would help Sinding escape if he left Falkreath forever and fought to find a cure. If he surrendered to the beast and innocent people died, she would hunt him herself.

Sinding accepted.

At the base of the Talos statue lay a katana in a worn black scabbard. Beside it rested a brittle note marked with the insignia of the Blades.

To the next Blade who finds this place: do not let the sword rust in darkness. Let it protect those who still walk beneath the sky.

Tsukihana lifted the weapon with both hands. The balance and construction differed from her own blade, blending Akaviri form with Nordic metalwork.

She did not draw it.

"Not yours?" Sinding asked.

"Not yet."

She secured it across her back for safekeeping.

Torchlight appeared at the mouth of the chamber.

Sinding flexed his hands. "Do you have a plan?"

Tsukihana drew her katana. "I have noticed that every road in Skyrim becomes an ambush."

For the first time since the jail, he smiled. "Then let us be the ambush."