JoS/Kanna/Kanna's Backstory
Prologue
To Karim, my dearest brother,
from Kanna, your sweet baby sister.
I decided to write this little book about my travels with you in mind. I know you're out there somewhere, but I'm not sure where. I know you're safe, I just know. There's an unbreakable bond between us. I also know that you know where I am, and you know I'm waiting every day eagerly. You also know I love you more than anything, right? Still do…
Me and you, we've been through so much together, so much so that you might think you know everything about me, as I know about you, but there's also some things you may not know. One such thing is amongst my very first memories, an unforgettable encounter with a stranger I've never told you about. This little story is one of them.
That day mother punished me by making me go sit outside. I can't remember why, but she was very cross with me. I must've screwed up big time. As I was sitting and sulking, getting over myself crying just minutes ago, I noticed an Imperial nobleman walking down the road, on his way somewhere with his route going straight past our house. He was a happy man with real spring in his step, and he was wearing a funny hat and wielding a strange walking cane carved out from wood. The man stopped to approach me, asking what I was doing all alone, looking so sad on top of it all. I stared at him silently, and even though I don't quite remember what his face looked like, I do remember feeling calm.
He thought he could cheer me up by showing me a magic trick. Well, he succeeded in getting my attention. I have no idea what he did or how he did it, but I remember the spell being very pretty, although it probably didn't serve any practical purpose. I asked him about it. "How did you do it?"
He smiled, telling me to show him both of my hands. He called them good hands, but I have no idea what he meant. It was a little weird. He placed his own palms below mine and pressed his thumbs against my palms, whispering that I should already know how he did that spell. I shook my head and insisted that I don't know anything about magic, but he insisted otherwise. "Yes you do", he said. "You just don't know it yet". Then, he simply left.
That random and strange encounter wouldn't have stuck to me if it wasn't for what happened the next day. I was out playing in the northern woods and I hurt my ankle. My leg got tangled in some vegetation and I fell over. Panicked, I tried my hardest to pull my leg away, and I only managed after getting myself hurt even more in the process. I was crying in pain, just wishing for someone to come help me. I couldn't even stand because of how much it hurt, and nobody heard me. The only person I could rely on was myself.
I then realized I could heal the injury my leg. It was so strange, but simply by touching my own ankle and holding it, I could slowly feel it becoming better. It was some sort of Restoration magic, and I truly had no idea I could do anything like that. Yeah, mother was good with these kinds of things too, but she never taught me. Nobody did, and all I could think about was that old gentleman I had met just day prior. He was right about me, but how did he know? I guess some people can see magical talent in others…
After that, I returned home and I never told anyone about the powers I discovered within myself. Of course, you know about my powers now because of all we've been through, but I don't think I ever told you how I exactly discovered my talent. You'll get to learn that through this written text once we meet again. Maybe we can read this book together? Or better yet, I could read it for you…
Until then, until we meet again.
First Part
It was Midyear of 423, a night between Fredas and Loredas, but I'm not sure about the exact date. I'm sure about the day because Loredas is the cleaning day, and because we were always rewarded with our favorite food for week's hard work, and I was looking forward to it. I was four at the time, and always happy at the most mundane and dumb things. This joy was robbed from me when they came in the middle of the night wielding torches and blades.
A bandit clan raided our peaceful home in Nimbel Moor, a small village on the northeastern edge of Hammerfell, south from the border of Skyrim. Their goals were simply to loot as much valuables as possible in as short time as possible, and to burn houses and crops on their route. They killed everyone they could, even those who tried to flee. They were inside our house before we even had a chance to escape.
My father tried to defend himself and his family, but he was no warrior. He quickly fell by the blade trying to defend me and my mother. At first, they weren't going for my mother's life. I didn't understand what they were trying to do, ripping her clothes and pushing her down. It was the first time I had ever seen my mother in such a state. She was a strong and proud woman, but there she was, horrified and crying… The sight made me want to cry in shock too. In the end, she ended up losing her life before they could defile her, but watching my mother die before my eyes didn't make it any easier.
They were coming for me next. Struck by fear, I couldn't move even though I thought I was next. That's when Karim came for my aid. I thought he was already dead, but there he was, standing between me and the three brigands with our father's sword in his right hand. His left hand instructed me to stand back, and I pushed my back against the corner.
Only one of the thugs was attacking, and Karim parried his incoming attacks well. Their blades clashed about five times before the first blood was drawn. Karim had wounded the overconfident bandit's wrist and enraged him in the process. Before the battle would resume though, a longsword pierced the bandit's chest from behind. Wielding a bloody sword was an Orc they called Grobush the Great. He was the leader of this group.
"He let himself be wounded by a kid?" he said, eyeing down his two subordinates left standing, speechless. "Pathetic", he added as he spat on the dead man's corpse. His attention then was turned towards me and my brother, who still had his sword pointed at the enemy in front of us. "You've got guts, kid. I'm impressed. What's your name?"
"Karim."
"How would you feel about taking that weakling's place and traveling with us? I've got a good feeling about you."
Karim, brave as ever, talked back, not listening to the Orc's proposal. "You people killed my parents", he said, with tears welling up in his eyes. Sadness and hate, two emotions mixed together, two emotions I had never seen him express before. "I will never forgive you."
"I'm not asking for your forgiveness", Grobush said. "What I want is your blade."
"Then have it", Karim said and charged forward. Caught in a duel with the Orc, he only lasted for ten seconds. With his right hand behind his back, the Orc defeated my brother and unarmed him. I had always viewed my big brother as unbeatable, as a hero in the making, as a talented warrior unlike anyone else in the village, better than even the adults, yet there he was, losing so quickly without doing able to do anything. It broke my heart and crushed my hopes of maybe getting away from this situation unscratched.
The brigands charged forward and apprehended me, kept me still by the edge of the blade by my neck.
"Consider this your final warning", Grobush said as he kicked our father's blade back at Karim's feet. "I'm not asking, I'm telling you. Pick up the blade, sheathe it and serve me. Otherwise we will hurt your sister in a ways you can't even imagine."
Him and I, my brother and myself, gazed at each other, both teary eyed and scared, still shocked at everything that was going on. This agonizingly long moment of quiet allowed him to collect his cool. I could see it in his eyes that the last thing he wanted was for me to feel pain at the hand of these men. He decided to do exactly as he was told and sheathed the blade as instructed by Grobush. The bandits let go of me and told me to behave to avoid trouble. Then, they led us out from our home, and set it ablaze. They were in a hurry to leave now that their work had been done.
That's the story of how we joined Blackhawk Bandits.
Well, it wasn't as much about me joining as it was about Karim joining. As I said, he's the real prodigy here, always been a hero-like figure in my eyes. It was the first time he had ever faced defeat, but that didn't shake my trust in him, because I thought he was still capable of being that unbeatable hero likes of which my naïve and dumb young self thought he could be… Don't get me wrong, I still think he's amazing, but the path to mastery is long and hard.
The Karim I once knew had died on the same day with our parents though. I could tell watching him from the shadows and sometimes from afar that he just had just uncharacteristic bitterness, anger and sadness to every aspect of himself, and understandably so. What happened that day changed me too, so it's obvious that it affected him as well. It was easy for me to forget that he had changed when we were alone though, and it was the only time he could ever show me his smile. I remember so many times of him just sitting down with me and telling me how much it means to him that I'm still alive and well and how he could never let any harm to fall on me. In return, I always promised to support him in any way I can, even though I wasn't really useful for anything back then.
The Blackhawks - as they called themselves - didn't have a place to call home. They were a caravan of sorts that traveled the lands around Hammerfell. We also visited places like Evermore and Wayrest in High Rock, Falkreath in Skyrim, Chorrol in Cyrodiil… But it was mostly just Hammerfell. As for the members of the caravan, there were twenty of them. One uniting factor for all of them in addition to crime and being outcast by society was the lack of parent figures. Not all of them were orphans, but they were all people who had been taken to the gang by its chief Grobush who himself lost his family and most of his clan during a bloody fight.
You'd think he would be maybe a little sympathetic towards me and Karim considering that we're just kids and that it was his people who killed our parents… But no, not really. Or, maybe he was, but just didn't show it. He did offer us food as safety though, so I suppose he wasn't all that bad. I didn't hate him as much as Karim did, but then again, he was much harsher and meaner towards my brother. I was mostly just afraid of him.
For the better part of these journeys, I spent time alone and had to entertain myself. I've always been good with magic, and Karim always told me to keep it secret because he was afraid that Grobush might use me as well. It never stopped me from training.
Restoration is pretty easy with all those handy healing and fortification spells… I feel like there might be even more depth to the school than just that, but I never felt like it was necessary, because as much as I liked rejuvenating the living, I also liked tapping into darker arts. You see, I once tried to heal a dead creature, a small mouse. I felt sorry for the poor thing, and I tried to heal it, but nothing worked… Nothing except a spell I had never actually tried, a spell I didn't even know I could cast. I ended up reanimating its corpse, only for a very brief period of time though. The undead mouse stood up, looking very confused, and slowly scurried away after realizing I was sitting there next to it… And then it just fell over disintegrated into dust. That was my first encounter with Conjuration.
It's a school of magic that has a lot more depth to it, so I was way more interested in learning more about it. Magic involving souls, otherworldly beings and even necromancy just seemed so exciting. Karim never was too happy about me knowing all this stuff. When I first shown him more of the things I could do and what I had learned, he just responded by being even more strict. He wasn't just asking or telling me to keep it as a secret. It kind of got from the point of him ordering me around, and even begging for me to be careful. These were dark things I was tapping into, and Grobush would've surely taken advantage of me had he learned about some of my talents.
There are probably many things I could talk to you about these journeys but most of the days aren't as memorable as others, and to be honest, I was still so young so I might be wrong about many details. However, this one day I will never forget for as long as I live.
WIP
Backstories
- Aliya's Backstory
- Kanna's Backstory
- Karim's Backstory