I was about a quarter through the word ag(burn) when the curry finished cooking and I portioned it out. The rich and slightly spicy curry went over the rice and made a lovely meal. Once I was done eating I yawned and got comfortable before dozing off. It was a quiet night and the fire died out sometime during it but the dome I set up kept most of the heat trapped inside so I wasn't cold. In the morning I add some fresh wood and tender to the still glowing embers and kicked the fire back to life.-
The little chill that had crept in was quickly chased away and Lokjun went out to entertain itself while I meditated after eating leftovers for breakfast. Time moved quickly as I was deep into the mindstate of meditation and soon enough I heard the light trudging of boots in the snow approaching the barrow. I opened my eyes and suppressed the thrumming of my soul from my meditation to wait for whoever this was. When the form of Aela stepped into the dome I relaxed. I looked her over and saw a deep wound on her right shoulder.-
"Troll give you trouble?" i asked nodding to the wound.
"Raised stone in the snow. I stumbled over it while kiting the beast, got this as a reward." she said with a shrug.
"Come, i'll heal it. Best not to chance an open wound in a tomb like this." I said waving her over as I stood up.
"Right, you did say you had some skill as a healer before didn't you?" she said as she seemed to recall that little detail.
"I did, Skjor asked how I walked away from a Werewolf fight unharmed and I told you both." I said calmly as I held up a hand to her shoulder and started my work.
"You can remember that? It's mostly a blur to me after almost a whole year." she said surprised.
"My mind is quite a bit sharper than most. I could tell you how my day went step by step when I was six, much less merely a year ago." I said bragging a bit.
"Impressive. No wonder you are a mage, mind like that is practically made for magic." she praised.
"And done. Give it a good flex to make sure it feels alright." I said as I finished with her wound.
She rolled her arm and moved it about in a few different way.
"Feels good as new, didn't even leave a scar. You must be a bit more than just a little good at healing to do this." she said impressed.
"Healing with magic is mostly based on how well you understand the body. Sure you could brute force it but you leave a strong chance of healing wrong if you do. The cost also goes down if you better understand what exactly you are doing. I'm no master at this but I know plenty about the body to close wounds like that without scars." I said casually.
"We heading straight in or resting first?" she asked after nodding in understanding.
"Up to you, i'm well rested but you've had to travel this whole way." I said with a shrug.
"Travel hasn't taken much from me so I can still handle some dusty Draugr." she said confidently.
I nodded and walked towards to cave entrance that led to the barrow. The inside of the cave was covered in ice and webs as we walked in. -
The ancient Nordic carved stones had been covered by this ice and a few cyan orbs moved around the place.
"What are those things?" Aela asked warily as the orbs hopped around us.
I reached down and grabbed one of them. I checked it out with some mysticism magical sensing and was surprised by what I found.
"They are spirit wisps, fragments of a soul. Yngol's soul specifically I'd wager since he lost his spirit to the sea ghosts. They have no thoughts themselves but must yearn to rejoin the body for release." I said as I released the wisp.
"What?" she asked confused.
"It's not common knowledge since it's very rare but when your body dies without a soul in it that soul gets trapped here on Nirn. At least until it can rejoin the body that is. Yngol's body was likely buried without his father realizing this and so there is a barrier between his soul and body that only someone alive could open. Over time his soul likely broke down into these fragments that have waited here for someone to allow their release." I explained seriously.
"By the gods, that sounds like a fate I'd wish on no one." she said horrified.
I nodded "It is. It's also not good news for us. Once these fragments join up with the body the likely maddened soul of Yngol will manifest as a spectre we will need to put down. I hope your weapon is enchanted or you have silver tipped arrows." I said gravely.
The continuity was a bit iffy since they changed the rule in Skyrim but in previous elder scrolls games you needed one of three types of weapons to hurt nonphysical enemies like ghosts. You needed either daedric weaponry, silver weaponry or enchanted weaponry.-
Thankfully both my sword and Aela's bow were enchanted so we were covered. We ignored the ever increasing amount of wisps as we walked deeper into the barrow that was becoming less frozen and more stone and deliberate design. Most of the burial stuff at this early part had long since been looted including the corpses, no doubt by necromancers. Soon we arrived in a chamber with three tunable stone pillars with ancient animal symbols on them and a throne. At the center of the chamber was a lever that controlled the ancient steel gate blocking our way.-
"Well this is no good. How are we supposed to get past this without clues?" Aela said with a frown.
"Who said there's no clues? Look at the pillars. What animals are those?" I asked with a grin.
"A whale, a hawk and a snake." she said confused.
"Right and look at the spots they are in. A wet spot, a grassy spot and a spot in the sunlight. Care to guess the answer to the riddle?" I asked with a smile.
"It's the habitats right? Hawk should be in the sun, snake in the grass and whale in the water." she said proudly as she turned the pillars to represent that.
"Good so far but who sits in the throne?" I asked and she strolled over and sat down.
"Man does of course." she said with a grin of her own.