#day 25: free day

[miraakulous-cloud-district]

TESCHEER DAY 25!

I had no idea in which day this would fit, so I’m posting it on the free day of @tescheer Have a wholesome little prequel of my main fic.

Summary: Ravonna comes home from the Vivec Mages Guild for the holidays! Also a little flashback with kid Ravonna.

Word count: 1277

Warnings: none

Characters: Ravonna, Hjaldir, Endryn (I’m in oc hell) and Teldryn is mentioned as well!

~

She climbs down from the Silt Strider and takes a moment to take the view in. Blacklight, in all its beauty. Now even more beautiful, decorated with countless colorful lamps and with snowberry everywhere. The sailors must have brought it from Skyrim, as they do every Saturalia. She can’t believe she’s finally here. It’s been a few months since she came home. But these months have been busy at the Mages Guild in Vivec. She didn’t like being away from home for too long, but Vivec has the best guild of mages, and it shows: her magical skills have improved so much, it even amazes her. Sometimes she just can’t believe that she can accomplish so much with her magika. And she has learnt the most fascinating spells and the best party tricks. She simply cannot wait to show it to everyone back home! So she starts running towards the city entrance, smiling all the way down there.

Her cheeks start to hurt from smiling so much, being greeted by townsfolk and passing through the market. The market area is so beautifully decorated and cheerful, with lots of food and drink stalls and people singing songs and greeting other travelers, adventurers or scholars coming back home, just like her, and joy. Pure joy everywhere. This is her favorite celebration, and it always will be.

She opens the door to the tavern and is immediately greeted by the smell of snowberry pie and mulled wine. Hjaldir is playing a Saturalia song, singing and playing the lute. When he spots her, he immediately strums the lute more lively, sing-shouting:

“Weeeell look who just came back hoooome!” he finishes with a few ending chords. “Our favourite girl is back! Ladies and gentlemen, do excuse me, but this demands a break! But worry not! We still have some sweet, sweet instrumental music from our guys!” He looks at the rest of the bards, as if looking for approval. They just smile fondly and nod, and it’s all he needs to run to her and squeeze her in a tight hug, lifting her off the ground.

“Hi!” she manages to say between chuckles.

“My, my, how I’ve missed you, girl! How was the trip home?” he breaks the hug to look at her.

“Good. A bit windy, but it didn’t bother me. I travelled with a few merchants and mages. Lovely people. They made the time pass so fast.”

“Glad to hear it.”  He smiles down at her. Gods, how glad he is to see her home and safe. It’s weird how close they got. Maybe it’s the strong bond between two poetic souls, two bards, or maybe it’s something more, but he never expected to have this in his life.

***

He remembers first meeting her like it was yesterday. He was a lost soul, with nothing left to lose when he came to this tavern one faithful night, right after leaving the pirate crew for good. He came with the intention to drown himself in alcohol and sorrow, but was greeted by a little girl, squinting her eyes at him.

“Are you a bard?”

“Something like that. This gave it away?” he pointed at his lute strapped to his back.

She nodded.

“Ravonna, leave the man be!” the bartender said softly from behind the counter. “Sorry about her, she tends to be quite talkative. Can I get you anything else?”

“No, thank you. And don’t apologize. She didn’t bother me at all.” He turned to her. “Ravonna, eh? That’s quite the unusual name for a nord girl like you.”

“Well, Endryn gave me this name. Named me after his aunt. She was a mercenary who got to meet the Nerevarine!”

“Now that’s something!”

“What’s your name?”

“Hjaldir. At your service!” He bows to her politely.

“Well, that’s quite the usual name for a nord like you, isn’t it?”

“Ha! I suppose you’re right.”

“You don’t have to be so stiff. Relax, I’m not going to ask you to sing a song.” She sits down next to him and sighs. “I can sense when a person is tired… Sleepy-tired, but also tired of life.”

“How do you know that?” he asks, eyes now getting wider. The kid had more emotional intelligence than he’d have thought.

“You see a lot of shit when you live in a tavern, believe me.” She says, looking truly like a tired adult. “See that guy over there? At first you would think he’s doing fine, but he’s wearing a mask, you know? He’s nervous. He’s got that feeling after eating spicy meat wraps. But not because he actually did that and his tummy hurts. He’s like that because he’s in love with the blacksmith, a bosmer who has lots of tales from Valenwood.”

“What’s wrong with that?”

“Absolutely nothing! Except that he’s married.”

“Oh. Oh.”

“But don’t worry, I won’t pressure you into telling me your life story, although it seems like an interesting one. I hope you’ll stay with us for a bit longer.”

***

“By the Gods, Ravonna, I’m only now seeing the amount of baggage! Let me help you with that!” Hjaldir says, coming back to reality.

“Look, I can explain. I need this stuff for an… experiment.”

“Sounds magical…” he says, and they both burst into laughter. “Well, it’s Endryn’s place. I am but a humble guest and resident bard. He gets to decide if the – the… what is this exactly?”

“It’s… complicated. Essentially, it is a spellmaking enchanter. I get to create my own spells. Finally!”

“Oh, really? And you can make everything you want?”

“I think so. I haven’t tested it yet, but you know what they say at the guild of mages? Magic goes as far as your imagination.”

“So you could… conjure up a lute?”

“I’ve never thought of it, but that is a fantastic idea! I think it’ll be my first project!”

“Glad to be of help. If you need me for anything else, I’m here for you. And Gods am I proud! Look at you! A full, respectable mage!”

“Ah, let’s not get ahead of ourselves…” she says, as they start to head towards her chamber.

“Nonsense! I’ve yet to see anyone match your passion regarding magic!”

“Well, you haven’t been to Vivec then…”

“Aye, but I’ve been! We used to do business in the cisterns. That’s where you buy and sell illegal stuff. So many trinkets I’ve traded there… but, of course, you already know that.”

“Yes, and your bad skooma trip! You haven’t been to the guild of mages in Vivec is what I meant.” she laughs, setting the luggage on the floor of her room.

“Don’t remind me of that! I still get chills when I think about it!” he says, shuddering.

“I would love to know how you ended up on top of the Foreign Quarter.”

“That, I wish to know as well.” He sighs with a smile.

“There she is!” Endryn’s voice can be heard by the door.

“And there he is! Blacklight’s busiest innkeeper!” she laughs, hugging him tightly.

“Oh, don’t even get me started! You know how it is this time of year. But no matter! You’re here now and that’s the most important thing.”

“It’s good to be home.”

“Oh, but you must be starving! The cheese scones are almost ready. Teldryn should be here any minute with the wine supply. And I made you cabbage stew. It’s still your favourite, right? Or did the fancy city of Vivec change your tastes?” he says, without even breathing.

“Endryn! Relax. Everything’s perfect!” she says, taking this all in. Oh, how she missed this place and the people in it!

~

If you’ve made it this far, thank you so much for reading! <3 I hope everyone has the best holidays!

[xanderscollection]

"Growing up is realising a (random ship) you loved is actually weird and bad"

Yeah? Is it? Great, I love it even more. The worse it is the Better.

[chrisrin]

IT IS DONE. THEY ARE ALL HERE!!!

[awesomeabbeygirl]

It’s the season to let your inner girl free!

[ghosted-real]

Watermelon stimboard!

🍉-🍉-🍉

🍉-🍉-🍉

🍉-🍉-🍉

Agere littles stand with Palestine! Help my friends with their gofundmes, donate if you can! ⬇️

https://gofund.me/9c66e135

https://gofund.me/4956157a

[crispycreambacon]

Debating if I should release the Ryan/Professor "marriage that goes south after a car crash" AU fic that my friend wrote for her English exam and got a 24/25 on

No additional context like last poll. Just follow your heart.

[kenobihater]

23 is young and i don't wanna go acting like it isn't but sometimes i see stuff from baby zoomers and i feel fucking ancient. skibidi toilet? i have yet to understand what that's referencing. reality shifting? i was into new agey stuff as a teen and i get the whole law of attraction/manifestation thing, but the rest is all greek to me. a good half of the aesthetics i see talked about online? literally got overwhelmed when i stumbled on the aesthetics wiki last year and i feel like an idiot seeing all these kids list off like 4 different hyperspecific aesthetics to describe themselves 😭 girl what does any of that mean? patiently explain it like i'm 85 when it comes up, or don't expect me to know what the hell you're talking about. i'll just end up smiling and nodding like your out of touch grandpa who loves your energy but is frightened by cellphones and the concept of smartfridges 💀💀💀

[itz-pandora]

Huh. If my life was a quote, it'd be "one of those sad ones with a deceptively happy tune"

[itstokkii]

so pissed at the intl kpop fans that love to infantilize kpop idols for not speaking up abt palestine. "oh but them speaking up about it wouldn't end the war" no but you'd be surprised how quickly it would be possible. kpop idols hold some of the most powerful influence in the world at the moment and they know this.

"oh b-but their entertainment agency doesn't let them talk about it" remember when taeyong was in the military and STILL spoke out against the nct collaboration with starbucks? he did what he could in that situation regardless of SM and the military.

if they cared enough they would. so hold them accountable every step of the way until they finally gain a sense of humanity.

[bougainvilea]

GUYS i baked all afternoon!! i went to my sisters house at 5pm and got home around 11. i made a lemon slice + a choc cake. the lemon slice is for the school bake sale and the chocolate cake was for staff morning tea :) i feel so enriched i did something for my brain something for my body AND something for my hands today!!!!!!!! yay!!!!!!

[bandzboy]

happy 25 de abril! 🌹🤍

today marks 50 years since the dictatorship in portugal ended and it was all thanks to the brave resistance of brave men and women that i'm able to be here today, free, and able to speak my mind. i'm eternally grateful to these people for what they have done for my country and if it wasn't for them, there was no democracy or liberty of expression. today, i'm especially thinking of palestinian people like i've been thinking for the past few months every day but i sincerely hope that portuguese did too since even tho, we have the freedom to celebrate our democracy and be able to go home to our families, palestinians can't and so therefore, today and more than anything, i'm praying for their freedom that is definitely gonna come. i'll always stand with solidarity and i'll fight every day so you can be happy in a free palestine. from the river to the sea 🤍

[awesomeabbeygirl]

Let your feminine self be free!

[tittyinfinity]

My super nice water bottle broke beyond repair and I can't replace it because my mom doesn't have her company discount anymore and this cup costs $60😭

[majimassqueaktoy]

The way Saejima has such a calm, soothing domestic streak to his personality is one of my very favourite things about him.

[rootbeerfloats]

trying to get a job when ur a stem major is so evil... im sorry sir ill only be available for like 3 hours every day... forgive me

[quaranmine]

i feel like i have a great track record of picking out mostly-decently-rated audiobooks and then just hating them. and i'm NOT even that critical of a person😭