Ashes of Helgen

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

The road east carried Tsukihana into the ruins of Helgen.

Blackened beams rose from collapsed homes. Stone had melted into glassy channels. An execution yard lay beneath ash, its platform split and abandoned. A child's wooden toy remained half-buried near a burned doorway.

An old trader gathering salvage told her a dragon had destroyed the town.

"The Dragonborn survived here," he said. "Noctis Arontis. Some say he was a prisoner awaiting the axe when the sky opened."

Tsukihana looked toward the broken keep. "A prisoner became Skyrim's hero?"

"World does not ask permission before changing a name."

A distant roar crossed the mountains.

Helgen made the dragon stories real. One creature had erased a town within minutes. The scale of the threat unsettled her more than any tale of heroism.

Before leaving, she placed a scorched Imperial shield against a memorial stone. Someone had held it while the world burned.

That deserved to be remembered.