Crossover Fan Fiction / Neon Genesis Evangelion Fan Fiction / Tenchi Muyo Fan Fiction ❯ Reason And Accountability ❯ Marching Orders ( Chapter 35 )

THIRTY-FIVE

Sleep came to me. I woke to an unfamiliar ceiling. It was stars again.

“I am sensing a certain lack of gratitude, Hachiman,” stated Death, a beautiful goth girl with an ankh necklace. I preferred her to the skeleton with the scythe.

“I’m sorry. I think I expected Pyrrha to be a bit more grateful and accepting.”

“You pulled her out of her world without warning, right before she would have died. Wait for the shock to wear off. That is not what I summoned you here. I have a job for you. I need you to get back to sleepwalking. Visit Skyrim, get some more training as a healer. Then I need you to visit some more places where you are needed. And deal with a very difficult man named Greg. You’ll learn a lot of healing from him, but he’s very difficult. He has saved more doomed patients than John Wick has killed.”

“Where?” I asked.

“New Jersey. Now: sleep,” she commanded and I went out like a light was turned off.

I woke to the sound of birds and the buzzing of insects. There was also the growl of a wolf. I rolled to my feet and electrocuted it with Spark. Two more wolves approached and I zapped one while the other got a face full of fire. I breathed hard from adrenaline, refilling my mana reserves, noting the fresh blood, mine. I healed myself with bursts of healing. There was plenty of mana here, at least. I looked further, noting the familiar spiky mountains. I was in Skyrim again. Well, Death did command it. Does this make me a follower of Arkay? I really should get one of the amulets.

I summoned Sofia and she appeared as if from nowhere.

“Hey, it’s you! I missed you,” she complained in her slightly Eastern European accent. For a demigod, she still acted like a coed on Spring Break in Miami. I saw some movies online.

“Good to see you again, Sophia.” I’m not sure if she uses the F or PH in her name. Sounds the same. Convenient that Skyrim speaks English rather than Norse. I finished skinning the wolves for their pelts and dropped them into my inventory. I’ll probably need those later.

I looked around and estimate that I’m close to the Hall of the Vigilant. I turned until I spotted the plumes of smoke rising from the wreckage. Time to go there and loot some robes and armor. A short walk later I started rolling dead Vigilants of Stendarr out of their robes and piled those up for eventual washing and sale to one of the many skinflint merchants. Sure, I could climb up the mountain to the underground maze full of vampires and a giant spider and skeletons and some of those nasty dog-demons. I could do that. Or I could ignore them and do something else, and the entire series of nonsense business with the Vampires would get nowhere and there’d be no black sun and no vampire lords because the ones up there are too stupid to unlock the vault with the bitchy girl inside. And I’ve already got Sofia.

“Give some sugar, baby!” I demanded, planting a firm kiss on her. She reciprocated, then I dropped her.

“Oww! Jerk!” she complained. I grinned. She’s that kind of demi-goddess. We headed for Dawnstar, out onto the tundra past the camp of one of those giants and his small herd of wooly mammoths. Mammoths are grumpy, just like elephants. Killed three more wolves, skinned and descended down to the seaside, near a tall spire of a rock and wedged into a cove with room for a single ship but nowhere to turn it around. They’d have to row to get it out of there, and the wind blows South, right into the cove. Miserable place, and nobody who lives there sleeps properly. Ah. Hmm. Well, I suppose I could do something about that. I visited the Jarl’s hall and found his mage, a sour old woman bitterly moaning about nobody fixing their sleep, etc, and why can’t people just accept the curse as it is. Totally not suspicious.

I traded the robes and novice mage hoods for Ice Spike, because a ranged weapon that goes very straight for long distances is useful. I also bought Greater Heal, which is an area affect healing spell, and a 40% mana regeneration ring, which is expensive but super-useful.

Then we went to the Inn and I bought Sophia some nord Mead, some garlic bread, and cooked up several servings of venison chops, rabbit haunch, and various soups because you get EXP for that. My next level boost came quickly and I put that into Mana reserves and Alchemy. I used the alchemy table in the inn to make Waterbreathing potion, worth 2300 septims… each. I made five vials, and got a good nights sleep, ignoring the Mara priest and his reassurances to the townsfolk with sleep deprivation.

The following morning after a slow breakfast and a quick cure of Sophia’s hangover, and finding her clothes, I walked down to the Apothecary and sold my potions for a literal fortune. This also got me EXP, raising my level once more, which went to Restoration, and enough to maintain first ward cast in combat. This would tie up my left hand, but it would block attacks and I could finally use Steadfast Ward, which was twice as good as Lesser.

Thus armed, I returned to the priest, negotiated with him to admit he knew why people weren’t sleeping and followed him up a mountain to what was clearly NOT an ambush but the giant spiders waiting at our destination. Two hours of murdering sleepwalking crazy people later, I yawned while the evil prince of nightmares tried to convince me to murder the priest of Mara while he was banishing the crappy staff. A short time later Sophia was sipping Nord mead and we ventured out of the tower, where our companion would be reopening the Mara shrine to worshippers again. A fine result.

When I reveled to the Jarl that I’d personally fixed their sleepless problem he was utterly ungrateful, offered me no payment much less thanks, and I stared hard, trying to make him combust out of shame. He had none.

“I loathe Skyrim.” I put another skill point into Restoration, gaining additional power with my healing spells, including the ability to spam healing hands and wound enemies to 75% of the healing value for anyone thinking mean thoughts at me. As much as I’d love to get the full on autocast version, that would probably cause all sorts of problems everywhere I went in the multiverse. I got a room in the Inn again, cuddled up to Sophia, who had bathed for my sake, and after railing her properly, settled down to sleep.