Annur remained unconscious for several days before regaining consciousness. He awoke in an unfamiliar room, his back itchy from the straw used to make the bed. Annur looked to his left and saw an end table with an ornate yellow vase engraved with various symbols he didn't recognize. Inside the vase was a small bouquet of Blue Mountain Flower. The pretty petals swayed slightly from the warm breeze that entered through a small open window near the roof.
Annur pulled off the rough pelt that was used as a blanket and saw his torso wrapped completely in bleached, white bandages.
Turning his attention back to the room, he stood up. It was a simple stone room with a wooden roof. The only furniture was his bed and the end table with the flowers. Seeing nothing and no one else in the room, he walked across the cool stone floor to the door and opened it.
The door led to a large hallway with many other doors leading to rooms similar to his, some open and others closed.
A man in robes walked by and noticed Annur. "Ah, you're finally awake. I'll fetch Priestess Amber immediately." Without letting Annur respond, the man quickly disappeared from sight.
Annur suddenly got hit with a strong feeling of vertigo and grabbed hold of the door frame to stop himself from falling to the ground. His hand sank into the wood as it deformed to the shape of his hand. "W-what the hell?"
A chuckle reverberated behind him. "Don't worry, we won't charge you for the door. This time," Annur spun around and came face to face with a beautiful middle-aged woman wearing an obviously lived-in, but well-maintained tan robe.
"I am very sorry, ma'am. I swear I didn't mean to do that." The woman chuckled.
"It's alright, child. It's quite obvious you aren't used to your newfound strength. Quite amusing too, I must add." She must have seen the confused look on Annur's face because she began to explain.
"You see, as one accumulates magicka in their body, their body grows with it. Your muscles get denser, bones tougher, etc. The Nords don't like to admit it, but any warrior worth anything is proficient with magicka. Of course, they absorb magicka differently than mages, but that's neither here nor there." Annur was stunned as he stared at her lackadaisical expression.
"I grow stronger the more magicka I have..?" The Priestess nodded with a kind smile.
"Indeed. Although most people grow their magicka — and therefore their strength — slowly, so they don't accidentally break doorframes." She chuckled once again as Annur sheepishly looked at the handprint in the frame of the door.
Annur looked back at the woman. "Where exactly am I?"
The carefree smile turned into a prideful one. "You are in the Temple of Kynareth. Specifically, the underground healing facility. And I am the head Priestess of this temple, Amber."
Annur blinked. "The Temple of Kynareth? In Whiterun?"
Amber simply laughed at him. "What an amusing child you are! But, no, we are in Falkreath." Amber started to... Pout? "Although our temple isn't as big as the one in Whiterun, it's still nothing to scoff at." Annur stared at the vast stone walls that stretched as long as he could see, and wondered how the one in Whiterun could be any bigger.
"I didn't know Falkreath had a temple to Kyne." It was Amber's turn to be confused.
"Of course it does, every Hold has at least one." Annur thought about it and nodded as it made sense. Temples of Kynareth acted as hospitals, after all, his only concern was that there definitely wasn't one in Falkreath in the game, nor a priestess named Amber. All these unknown variables unsettled Annur greatly; his blood ran cold, and his heart thumped with double the intensity from thinking about it.
"Anyway, since you're on your feet, please follow me. The two men who brought you here have been worried sick." They walked down the halls and up a long flight of stairs as Amber explained how Amiryn and Camvyn had carried him from their hunting shack all the way to the city and into the temple and how he had been unconscious for three days.
Amber led Annur to a waiting room of sorts, and that's where he saw the two Redguards sitting down. Their hands together, fingers interlocked. Amiryn had an obviously worried expression with his dark eyebrows pushed together tightly, and he was chewing on a nail of his free hand. Camyvn, on the other hand, looked as he usually did — expressionless — except for the slightest wrinkle on his forehead.
"By the Gods! Annur!" Amiryn noticed him first and immediately rushed over to Annur, grabbing him by the shoulders. "Are you okay, boy?" Annur nodded his head, and Amiryn sighed in relief.
"Give him some space, Amiryn. He just woke up." Camyvn put his hand on the tunic of Amiryn, to which he released Annur. "We thank you for bringing him to us, Head Priestess Amber."
Amber waved her hand at him. "My pleasure, Camyvn. Annur is certainly enjoyable to observe, haha."
Annur stood by as the three of them conversed for a time before he and his guardians left the temple after giving him a tunic to wear and went onto the streets of Falkreath. Instantly, Annur was shocked solid. The Falkreath Annur knew was a small town nestled in the midst of a forest, comprising a few wooden houses. The real Falkreath would have easily dwarfed the in-game solitude, and that was only the parts of the city he could see currently.
He watched as the bustling street teemed with countless people moving back and forth between market stalls, inns, and those simply enjoying the pleasant weather. In the distance, Annur could hear the sounds of a hammer hitting iron through the chatter of the people.
Amiryn laughed at the young man's behaviour. "First time in the city?"
All Annur could do was nod without looking at the Redguard. "Yeah, it's a little bigger than I expected."
Amiryn shook his head with a smile and walked through the crowd. Annur couldn't help but stare at the countless people, stalls, and buildings he didn't recognize.
The walk through the city took much longer than Annur thought it would. It took 15 minutes to reach the gates, which led back into the forest that led to the hunting shack.
The two Redguards engaged in small talk with one of the guards they knew, while Annur observed the city. The guards wore similar armour to the ones in the game, only with more fur pelts on them.
Annur suddenly had a large chill run down his back. He whipped his head around, looking for the source of his panic, and eventually laid his eyes on someone, or at least something. In the distance, through the small crowd going to and fro the gates, was a man wearing fully plated armour that covered his entire body with tiny, intricate runes etched into it. Instead of a helmet, the man wore a hood made of chain mail and a metal mask with a scowling face.
Annur lost his breath as he saw the menacing man staring him down with what seemed like a Dragon priest's mask. As if to make things worse, the plated man walked toward Annur with calculated strides across the cobblestone road. Annur looked back at Amiryn and Camyvn to see them still talking with their acquaintance. Before he could call out or run over to them, a large armoured hand placed itself on Annur's shoulder. "You..."
Annur, with a face as white as the Dawnstar snow, swung his fist and struck the mask dead center. It didn't appear to have hurt the man, but it shocked him enough for Annur to slip away and run to the Redguards. He grabbed them by their hands and kept running.
"A-annur, what are you doing?" Amiryn asked as he ran alongside the boy.
"Some creepy Dragon priest-looking guy tried grabbing me, so I booked it!" They both looked at each other as they sprinted on the paved road leading out of Falkreath. Annur didn't stop until his legs couldn't carry him any farther. "Ah-ah, did we lose him?" Annur bent over with his hands on his knees, gasping for breath.
"What happened, Annur?" Camvyn asked him.
"I don't know. Some massive guy in armour grabbed me and I bolted." Before anything else could be said, all three of them heard the sound of hooves hitting against the ground behind them. Camvyn was the first to react by pulling out his scimitar and standing between the oncoming horse and his companions. He pushed his foot back and lowered himself closer to the ground while raising the sword.
Through the thick treeline, they saw a chestnut horse galloping towards them, its rider wearing a menacing dark metal armour that seemed to absorb the light.
"You two stay back. I'll handle this," Camvyn steadily approached the man as he commanded his horse to stop a small distance away from the group.
"But, Cam-" "Not now, Amiryn." Camvyn cut off Amiryn's protest before he could make his point.
The rider dismounted and walked towards Camvyn calmly with a straight back. On his back was a large polearm that ended in a head with a braizer-like object that held a blue soul gem and fire salts inside. He stopped a few feet from Camvyn and was slightly taller than him, so he stared down at him.
"There is no need for violence. I wish to see the boy." The masked man made his intentions known, but Camvyn wasn't having it.
"You'll get him when I wash up on the beaches of The Far Shores." With that, Camvyn charged forward and deftly swung at the man's head, attempting to sever it with a clean strike.
"Striking at me without even introducing yourself?" The armoured assailant dodged the attack and pulled the polearm off his back. It was dark like his armour and taller than he was. Runes lit up on the base of the chalice that adorned it, and it brimmed with fire. He returned a heavy overhand strike towards Camvyn, shooting up the earth once his attack missed and stuck the ground.
"I am Solomon the Scholar."