In Over His Head Ch. 10

I will be home in barely more than a year's time. Even less by the time this reaches you.

Please wait for me, Staan.

Love,

Eydva

* * * * *

Eydva hopped out of the carriage, stretching her legs, bending low to stretch her back. She heard it pop in protest, but she didn't care. She was home. After six month of tedious "learning" she was just glad to be home. As expected, her grandmother did not meet her outside, or even at the doors. But at least she wasn't performing the walk of shame.

She closed the massive door quietly behind her, noticing that her grandmother was snoring softly on the chair by the fire. She shuffled quietly through the room and into her bedroom. It still felt so strange that their home was so empty. It seemed that grandmother hadn't rehired anyone back after she'd left. She tossed her huge bag up onto her bed and sat down at her desk with a soft sigh. She would freshen up before she... before she went to go see Staanovaar. The thought of seeing him excited her, but it also caused a huge well of butterflies to sprout in her stomach. She'd always been so relaxed around him, for the most part, but the thought of confessing her love... she shook her head, pinching her cheeks. "Don't be an idiot!" she chided herself.

She leaned back, letting her mass of red hair fall from her head, unfurling it from the bun it had been twisted in, fingers running between the strands. She'd like a nice bath before she ventured back out, but she wouldn't really have time, not if she wanted to get to Staan's place before the sun went down. She pinched her cheeks again, sighing. "Don't worry, Staan is Staan, idiot, he won't... he won't..." she trailed off. She pushed away from her desk with a sigh and stood again.

"It's now or never," she told herself.

And with that, she crept carefully out of her room, through the living room, and back outside, closing the door softly behind her so she wouldn't wake her grandmother. She bundled her coat back up around her face, and began the small hike to Staanovaar's home.

As the estate came into view, she stopped, willing her heart to calm inside her chest. This was nothing special. It was just Staanovar. Her oldest friend. Her dearest friend. No matter what happened, that would always be true. She rubbed her cheeks gently, and pushed forward, mumbling words of encouragement to herself. As she approached the door, she stopped, her hand on the knob, idly kicking snow from her boots. She could see warm light spilling through the windows, and the muffled sounds of laughter and happy voices coming from inside, loudest of all was Staan's booming laughter. It was probably just about dinner time, and she knew there would be a plate for her, there always was. She inhaled sharply, then pushed the door open, a grin on her face.

She closed the door softly behind her, undoing the fasteners on her coat. She slipped it off and hung it up on the wall with all the rest, along with her scarf. Pushing her hair from her face, still sporting her grin, she rounded the corner into the next nearest room, the dining room. "Hey guy-" she stopped dead.

As everyone at the table- Staanovaar, his parents, all three of his sisters, an uncle, and... a beautiful young woman- stared at her, her mouth dropped open, her heart thumping painfully in her chest. The girl? She was so lovely, with curly blonde hair and icy green eyes (how could she ever have compared to that?). She was sitting next to Staanovaar, ridiculously closely, very obviously comfortable in this position, surrounded by his family. Her hand was resting gently on his arm.

"Whoa, Eydva!" Staan cried out, jumping abruptly up from his chair. The girl beside him scoffed, her smile falling from her face in disgust as her hand was jerked from his arm. "You're home?" he asked.

But that question received no answer. Before the tears could spill, before she made a fool of herself worse than she already had, Eydva had turned away from the heart wrenching scene and was already running out the door and through the yard, her coat and scarf forgotten.

She ran blindly through the snow, tears stinging her eyes. She stumbled into the nearby woods, willing her legs to carry her away from here, to anywhere else. The humiliation, the heartbreak, she could leave those behind if only she could run far enough, fast enough. She was numb to the cold, even as her fingers grew painful, as her legs began to ache with the effort of carrying herself, even as her tears froze onto her cheeks. It didn't matter, nothing mattered. She simply wanted to disappear.

So she ran.

It was later... much later, when she finally gave in to her exhaustion. Her body collapsed underneath her, legs crumpling, muscles no longer working. Her gingery hair was stiff around her head, snowflakes and ice sparkling within the tangles. She leaned against a pile of stones, shuddering and shaking, gasping to catch her breath. She fell down into the powdery snow, hoping that her heart wouldn't explode before she could calm it. Not that mattered... what good was a heart if it were broken? She looked up then, and noticed a dog watching her from behind the nearest tree. It seemed apprehensive, but not entirely scared.

Eydva watched the dog curiously, their big eyes mirroring one another. When she sat back fully upright, the dog moved with her, coming from behind the tree just so. "Hey... I won't hurt you," she croaked, sputtering a bit as her lungs still didn't seem quite up to the work of speaking, since they'd just barely gotten her breathing in check. She got up on her knees, and the dog stepped closer, then barked.

She jumped a bit, surprised, but it didn't seem to be an aggressive bark. The dog caught her eye again and stepped to the left, woo -ing softly. Eydva blinked at it cautiously. A strange dog, alone in the woods...

She struggled to get back onto her feet, groaning with the effort of getting her body back into motion. "You want me to follow you, I suppose?" she whispered to the dog. She'd read enough books to know that this was a bad idea. The worst idea, probably. But she was heartbroken, feeling helpless. Feeling reckless.

The dog darted away as it saw Eydva taking a step toward it, bounding a few trees down the line. "I'm coming," she promised it.

Years later, she would look back on that fateful night and why in Oblivion she decided to follow. Much like her life at that time. she didn't know where the beast was going. She didn't know what awaited at her at her mystery destination. But one thing was for sure, she had to go forward somehow, both in life and in that forest. Might as well follow a strange dog she never met before even deeper into the woods and just see what happens. After all, It couldn't hurt worse than what she had already been through, right?

it was a foolish girl thought. One born of her youth and impatience, her lack of context, her narrow scope of experience. Anyone who has been around or lived even half their life knows the lie of it. The main truth of the Universe: It doesn't matter how bad things are in your life at any given point..

They can always get worse.

* * * * *

Ok, this was taking too long. She had been following the dog for several minutes now through the forest, but due to the pace they were keeping and the harshness of the cold it felt like hours. She was cold.. And getting tired.. If this didn't get somewhere soon, she was going to be in trouble. She swiped at her face, wiping away the last trace of tears that had been stuck there, frozen to her cheeks and into her eyelashes. She inhaled deeply, taking the crisp air into her lungs. She wheezed with the effort, following curiously after the dog, coughing quietly to herself.

The dog started to trot. Eydva was worried she wouldn't be able to keep up, but she realized as the distance between them grew, that the dog's dark fur stood out against the hazy white of the fluttering snowflakes as it trotted between trees and bushes. And the sheer size of the dog...like a small horse! You could probably see it from a kilometer or two away!

She parted a huge wall of brambles that she'd seen the dog slip through, ignoring the thorns digging and scratching into her hands and arms. She stumbled into a clearing, catching herself on her hands and knees. She looked up, and her mouth dropped open. In front of her stood a statue. It depicted an impish man, horns protruding from his head. He held aloft a mask covered in intricate scrollwork, sporting an impressive set of horns that curled back from the front. Beside the figure was a dog, one that was oddly similar to the one that had lead her here.

She dusted snow and dead leaves absently from her legs as she moved forward, marvelling at the statue. "Has this always been here?" she wondered aloud, shielding her eyes from the sun that had decided to shine down into the clearing, from behind the statue.

"Well, well, well look what the mutt dragged in.."

The voice come out of nowhere. It was unmistakably male, but high and sing songy, with a strange accent she couldn't place.

Eydva gasped, squinting against the sun up into the statue's face. She could have sworn...? Did it... no, of course not. Right? She cleared her throat, feeling foolish, "E-excuse me?" she said tentatively.

There was a huff of annoyance. "I'm behind you deary," the voice said.

Eydva turned with a start. "...?" The only thing behind her was the large dog, who had appeared behind her somehow her and was now sitting on the ground, its massive form blocking the only visible path back out.

"Are you speaking to to me, big doggie?" she asked, taking a careful step towards the beast. It stared at her... silently.

"Don't be silly," she scolded herself.

There was another sigh, this one more annoyed than the last.

"Thank Oblivion no. He's not. I AM.," the voice said. An arm popped out a few trees down the way, attached to a small man that Eydva didn't recognize. He had golden hair atop his head, from which a pair of... strangely familiar... horns protruded.

Edyva looked at him curiously, then back at the statue, then back at the man.

The man shrugged. "Just a coincidence, I assure you." He took a step forward, and bowed low before her in an exaggerated manner. Eydva wasn't sure if that was just his way, or he was making fun of her. He was clad only in a white robe and seemed to be even more ill-dressed for the weather than Eydva was, though he didn't appear to be suffering for it. The huge dog came closer as well, trotting to join the man at his side.

Under normal circumstances, she would not have put herself into a situation such as this. She looked around, checking her surroundings. There were very few escape routes. No one was around to save her. On the other hand, the love of her life had found another woman and would never be hers. She had nothing to lose... what did it matter what this stranger's intentions were? She shrugged to herself and came closer, reaching out to touch the dog as it came within arm's length. "What are you doing here?" she asked up at the man, as she crouched around to scratch the dog under his chin.

The man crossed his arms nonchalantly and leaned against a tree with his arms folded.

"Me? I'm here for you deary. I was just hanging about and I heard you coming a mile away." he said. "The true question is.. what are YOU doing here? You seem like a girl with everything to gain and nothing left to lose." He said it in his strange singsong voice without a hint of sympathy or pity, instead there was a sense of anxious anticipation in his words, like he wanted to say more, but was holding himself back, though his face betrayed nothing of whatever was going on in his head.

He was right, she thought to herself. Eydva nodded mournfully. "I..I can't go back home," was all she said. She stood up, stretching. Her body was stiff and sore from running all day, the chill of the weather settling heavily into her bones. She shivered, wishing she hadn't been so rash as to have forgotten her coat and scarves. The large statue of the man and dog was silently staring back at her.

The man smiled at her gently, waiting. When Eydva remained silent, he slipped from the tree to where she stood facing the strange statue with surprising speed, almost as if he had just appeared in front of her out of thin air.

"YOU are NOT running FROM something. YOU are running TOWARD something. .something you want... something you neeeeeeed..."

"...hey! Don't start that yet!" A low growly voice declared from behind her. Eydva started, a hand coming up to her chest in surprise. She was sure there hadn't been anybody else around...

The large dog came around in front of her again and sat down beside the man. "She stopped petting me," he complained and pouted.

"He can talk!" she declared.

The man rolled his eyes. "Talk? By old Sheo's mad beard he can talk! The hard part is getting him to shut up!"

Eydva was looking at the pair of them now, in front of the statue. Man and dog in mirror image of the larger stone versions behind them. She looked only once back and forth between them and she felt the ice of fear in her heart.

This was no coincidence. The statue... the man and the dog in front of her. They were the Same! She recalled a lecture from her mage school days about Daedric princes and wished she had paid more attention. Her eyes went wide and she started to back away instinctively.

"You're... you're..."

"Devilishly handsome? Incredibly charming? Generous to a fault? Always willing to help the brokenhearted and despondent?"

"You... you're... VILE!" The name finally popped into her head, and it did not taste very pleasant on her tongue.

"BAAAAAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... she's got you pegged!" The dog fairly howled, as he rolled onto his side shaking with laughter till he started to cough.

The little man stood frozen in place, his grin never faltering as he waited for the dog's laughter to subside. "I would prefer it if you used my full name, deary. It sounds so ...unpleasant... when you only use the last bit."

Eydva recalled her lectures now suddenly very vividly. Daedra were spirits from the dawn of creation. They had generally sided against the mortal races in the old stories and some of the worst were considered evil monsters bent on the destruction or enslavement of all the races of Nirn. At best they were untrustworthy... at worst, well, she didn't want to think about the worst.

Eydva scoffed a bit, narrowing her eyes at him. "I know what you are," she told him, crossing her arms over her chest. "And... and...!" she continued helplessly.

"Mmmm?" he intoned, tilting his head a bit, curious.

Eydva made a sound of defeat, letting her arms fall back to her sides. "And I need your help," she admitted finally. After all... this particular Daedric Prince's sole purpose in life was to make deals, and she needed something. Something she couldn't give herself. But maybe he...

"If help is what you need, help is what you get! Clavicus Vile, The Morningstar! Daedric Prince of Wishes, Bargains and Deals! At your service!" He said this with great theatricality as he made his exaggerated little bow again. It was clear to Eydva at this point, it was simply part of his shtick, and he obviously relished any opportunity to perform it, given the chance. As he stood back straight again, Eydva had the strange but distinct sensation that he wanted more from this encounter than she did. Which made her feel a bit like she might have at least a tiny upper hand in any negotiations, well, as much anyone could when dealing with the Daedric Prince of Trickery (he'd left that one out).

Eydva watched him carefully, as though he might perform a trick of Magicka in front of her eyes. Turn her into a mudcrab or gargoyle the second she let her guard down. She stood her ground, watching as the dog recovered himself, pacing around them in circles now.

"I like this one. She smells nice!" he commented, stopping to sniff Eydva's pant leg. He made a face of pleasure, if such a face could even be made by a dog. It was easy enough to read his meaning.

Eydva snatched her leg away from the sniffing animal. "Your dog is rude," she said. Well, that wasn't a sentence she had ever imagined herself saying ever in her life.

Clavicus's face lit up with validation. "SEE?" he said pointing at the dog first, and then her with obvious glee. "There, I told you so! I'm not the only that thinks so! I'm sorry my dear, he's got a mind of his own, old Barbas..." The dog finally went around and sat back down by Clavicus' side, watching Eydva with a twinge of consternation. He didn't know what his master was up to, but he was sure it was no good thing.

Clavicus watched Eydva as she watched them. He could see her putting her words together in her mind, trying to find the right way to say what she needed to say... delicately. That was where most people went wrong, after all, and if your words went wrong with Clavicus.. Well lets just say they might be writing stories about you for quite some time. Cautionary tales, mostly.

Eydva opened her mouth, closed it, then opened it again.

"...I need your help," she repeated dumbly.

"Yessssss, yesss you do girl." Clavicus said, rubbing his hands together. "But what is it that you WANT? You have to say it. You have to TELL me what you need... you tell me what YOU need, and I tell you what I WANT for it. That's how this bit works..." he explained to her.

He made a gesture with his arm, encompassing their whole area, and then he flashed a wide grin, that was anything but comforting.

"Ah..." Eydva seemed uncertain, but she looked towards the clearing, back where her old self was. Because she knew. She was dealing with the Daedric Prince of Deals, and no one who had ever done so had been the same afterwards. This moment would change everything. She could even the playing field and make Staan notice her the way she wanted to be noticed, not as just as a childhood friend. She thought back to that scene in Staan's little family cottage, that beautiful girl on his arm. Eydva had always been rather plain. She often heard people talking about her when they thought she wasn't in the room and it was usually something along the line of "It's a good thing she's so smart..." Boys had never paid her any attention, not that she had particularly cared. She had only ever loved one boy... and had hoped that love would be returned, but apparently he liked pretty girls just like every other man. Well, she would show him! That thought seemed to give her the courage she needed.

"I want you to make me beautiful," she said finally. Firmly. "Oh... but I want to stay smart too?" she said with less confidence, as she imagined herself in a beautiful, but vapid, existence. She wouldn't give up her craft. Not even to win Staan. But maybe she could have both?

"Ohohoho...!" Clavicus tittered with glee. This was too perfect. Rife with opportunities. "Beautiful, you say?"

"Yes!" she asserted. "But don't make me dumb either, please?" she repeated.

Clavicus flashed that eerie grin again. The one that says I've-heard-all-this-before-but-I-need-you-to-trust-me-so-I'm-humoring-you. "Yes, yes... cake and eat it too, of course!" he agreed.

He stepped forward as he spoke and began to circle around her. He had to see what he was working with, of course. The source material was important for this kind of work. He nodded to himself as he took stock of her, making a face at this, or looking particularly pleased with that.

Eydva crossed her arms over her chest, unsure what to make of it, and unaccustomed to the attention.

"No, deary..." Clavicus said, tsk tsk-ing."When I'm done with you, you will not be able to hide yourself. People will want to see you, drink your beauty up, feast upon your loveliness..." he said, motioning for her to drop her arms and to stand more gracefully, with a poise more befitting of the body she would soon be inhabiting. He went back to examining his canvas.