JoS/Lyra/2nd Journal - The Stormcloaks

Last Seed, 25th, 4E 201

I was able to make it to Windhelm without too much trouble. Windhelm is a big city, so I spent some time exploring. It’s a lot colder than I expected, though. I overheard a guard talking about some kid named Aventus, I think. There’s a rumor that he is praying to the Dark Brotherhood so they will kill someone for him. I heard a friend talk about the Dark Brotherhood once a long time ago. But when I asked Daddy about it, he got mad and told me that it was just an old legend. Then again, dragons were supposed to be a legend; so maybe the Dark Brotherhood is real, too.

I found the Palace of Kings to see about joining the Stormcloak army. It was scary talking to Jarl Ulfric and his general. I thought they would tell me I was too young to fight, but they didn’t. I told General Galmar, Ulfric's general what had happened to my father and that I wanted to fight the empire because they killed him. The general said he could tell I was perfect Stormcloak material and told me he wasn’t even going to test me like he usually does with new recruits. I thought it was weird, but I wasn’t going to argue. He made me swear an oath and gave me armor. He was even able to find one that fits, mostly. That’s good because it’s a lot warmer so I won’t get too cold here.

Anyways, I’m staying at the Candlehearth Hall inn for now. I need a little more gold, but I have a plan. I’ve collected a bunch of ingredients while I was out hunting. There’s an alchemy shop called The White Phial here in the city, so tomorrow I’m going to try and make some potions that I can hopefully sell to the shop. If not, I’m hoping I can at least sell some ingredients so I can afford to stay in Windhelm a while longer before I get my first assignment from General Galmar.

Last Seed, 27th, 4E 201

Selling a few potions for money didn't exactly go as planned. I went to the Alchemy shop early in the morning and ended up walking in during and argument between the two people who run the shop. The older one was insisting he go off on some errand while the younger guy insisted he isn't well enough to go. By the old man's coughing, it was pretty clear he really shouldn't be going anywhere, especially since it's so cold outside.

My daddy would always be friendly with shopkeeprs to get a better price for meat and furs, so when their argument was over, I decided to introduce myself to the older shopkeeper and ask what the argument was about. He introduced himself as, Nurelion and started telling me about something called the White Phial that his shop was named after, how he had spent his whole life searching for it, and finally found its location. He said he thinks it's in a cave not too far from Windhelm called the Forsaken Cave. The idea of running off and searching for it sounded really scary, but it also sounded like a great way to make some gold. After all, I was feeling really great about my Archery skills after all my training from Faendal. So I offered to help retrieve the phial for him. He seemed a little apprehensive, probably given that I'm just a little girl, but he was happy that I wanted to help. He gave me some mixture that he said I would need to get the phial. It seemed weird, but I didn't argue.

Before I left the shop, a girl about my age came up to me and started making fun of me. I could tell she wasn't being serious though and I just laughed. Her name is Yanna and she is the niece of Quintus, the assistant apothecary that works in the White Phial. She wanted to come with me and help me retrieve the White Phial. I figured I could use the company so I said sure.

She said her uncle wouldn't mind and pretty much lets her do whatever she wants. So we set of together. It turns out, we have a lot in common. Her parents aren't around anymore either. I told her about what happened to my father and me too. I wasn't really close to anyone my age in Falkreath, so it was nice to have someone to talk to for a change and understand what I had been going through over the last few weeks.

Our trek to the cave was relatively uneventful. We only came across a couple of wolves which I saw before they even payed any attention to us. I shot one with my bow and Yanna got the other with magic!

The cave was really scary, but Yanna and I make a really great team. I shoot arrows while Yanna uses her dagger and destruction magic. There were lots of creepy undead things coming out of tombs which I guess are called Draugr. There's no way I would have been brave enough to do this alone. I had no idea stuff like this was actually real.

We even ended up spending the night in that place. We picked a place to rest that we knew would be safe, but it was still really scary and I didn't sleep very well. But we got moving this morning and made our way through the rest of the cave.

It turns out I needed that stuff that Nurelion gave me to pour in a bowl so a passage for the White Phial would open. We found it but unfortunately it seems to be cracked. Hopefully Nurelion can fix it or something. We just got out of the cave and are resting for a bit before heading back to Windhelm.

And yeah, Nurelion has a short temper. We got the White Phial back to him and he was really mad because it's cracked. He even tried to blame me for breaking it! I mean, who knows how many hundreds of years old this thing is, I don't know why he'd expect it to be in one piece. He's lucky to get it in as good of shape as it is. He only gave me 5 gold for all of that. Fortunately Yana's uncle made it right. He gave me 500 gold! I've never seen so much before. This will definitely help me keep a roof over my head and my quiver full of arrows.

Last Seed, 28th, 4E 201

Joining the Stormcloaks was a big mistake! And worse, I brought Yana into this too. I told her I was headed to the Palace of Kings and she wanted to go with me. It's not like I was going to say no. I hope she doesn't blame me.

I went to see General Galmar. He was excited to see me and happy that I had brought a friend too. I was worried he might not like having someone else tag along. He led us upstairs inside the Palace of Kings and into a bedroom with two guards guarding the door. Then he told us he was going to show us how we'll be serving the Stormcloaks. Before I could tell him Yana wasn't a Stormcloak, he came onto us. We didn't even have time to react as he disarmed us both. We tried to fight him off, but two little girls are no match for a seasoned army general. And even if we had managed to overpower him, we'd still have every castle guard to contend with and probably every guard in the city. No, there's no way we could have gotten away.

He stripped us both and tied us to the bed. There was no doubt what was coming next. He chose to rape me first. He was much bigger and stronger than that Imperial soldier that had first raped me and he didn't hold back as he kept thrusting against me either. Fortunately, he didn't last long. After he came inside me, he waited for a bit and then got on-top of Yana. I hated that all I could do was watch and listen to her cries as he defiled my friend.

After he came inside her, General Galmar left us tied to the bed. At least these ropes leave some slack so I can write this journal entry. Yana fell asleep as soon as the general left so I don't want to wake her. I really hope she isn't mad at me about all this.