Chapter Text
Alyssa was running silently towards Raven Rock, carrying a dying man on her back. She had no idea how he had survived, nor how they both made it back to Tamriel, but there was a chance to save him and she would take it. Not that she thought he deserved it, just that she couldn’t just leave him to die like that. She couldn’t just leave people like that, unless she was forced to.
Even when they were people she had set out to kill, apparently.
The last dragonborn sighed as she approached the town. She slowed down, even if it might mean Miraak would bleed out longer. Being stealthy was the key here – even if she had not told everyone that she was on her way to go kill Miraak (what would have been the use of that ?), she would rather not have anyone see him. His mask was pretty recognizable after all, even if she doubted anyone in Raven’s Rock had seen him before. You can never be too careful when you’re bringing a criminal in your house and trying to avoid the guard while doing it.
Thankfully, she had arrived at the very moment guards were usually distracted by tiredness. She was a skilled enough thief to be able to pass through the gates without being seen, and stayed in the shadows as she half walked, half ran towards the Severin Manor. The moon was somewhat clouded, giving her ample cover to stay hidden, and she only relaxed a little as she gently opened her door and got home. But only a little.
She had to be swift, and she was a terrible healer. She might not be the greatest help for Miraak, but as long as he wasn’t awake, he was not able to heal himself. Her own skills would have to do.
She carried him to the room she did not sleep in – she would hardly call it a guest room as she usually had no one around to welcome, at least not in Solstheim – and put him down on the bed. After that, she carefully removed his robes, leaving him his mask and pants, to uncover the damage that she had done during their fight. It was pretty nasty, some of them were already infected, and of course she could pick out which ones had been made by her poisoned weapon. But now was not the time to regret the way she fought.
She tried to steady her breathing. Yes, she was terrible at healing spells. No, it would not stop her from trying, as soon as she would have cleaned the wounds. She wasn’t sure what to do for the infected ones, but she’d figure it out. She ran outside of the room to take something to clean the wounds – alcohol ? soap ? what was most effective ? She did not know, and in doubt, took both, while grabbing a towel and water to use with the soap. In a way, she also hoped that whenever Miraak would wake up – if he woke up – he would not realize she had entirely panicked and improvised.
Not that it’d worsen his view of her in any way.
Breathing in, breathing out. No, alcohol was definitely a bad idea – and she had grabbed a good bottle at that. It would be a waste to use it on something that it would ultimately be useless for. She then slowly started tending to the wounds, washing and rinsing them, healing whatever she could with the little skill she had. It took her too long for her to count, but when she was done patching him up as best she could, she had to fight herself to avoid passing out right then and there. She retreated into her room, half hoping the man wouldn’t die during the night, half hoping he would and she wouldn’t have a problem with him later on.
She practically let herself fall into her bed, not even pulling the sheets over herself.
When she awoke, her first thought was to check the time. She had no idea how long she slept and did not have a clock in Severin Manor. As she walked out of her house, the relative luminosity told her it was about mid-day. She stretched, before walking over to the marketplace to buy something nice to eat this morning. She didn’t feel like making food for herself, and Garyn Ienth was always selling tasty things.
They didn’t speak much, but Alyssa bought him enough food to last for weeks, which wasn’t that unusual for her. It was only when she got back home with everything that she remembered Miraak’s existence, and she let out a groan. She set down the food on the table near the fireplace, and walked downstairs to the room she put him in.
As a precaution, she knocked, but entered anyway when she didn’t get an answer. As she had imagined, he was absolutely not awake. She also realized that she had forgotten to put a bedsheet, or a blanket, or literally anything over him before leaving the night before – not that she cared, it was just the polite thing to do. She sighed and decided to do that now, at least. The wounds she had patched up seemed to not have reopened during the night, which was a blessing, as she wasn’t sure she would have been able to do anything else. It also mostly seemed like Miraak hadn’t moved at all during the night.
After tucking him in, Alyssa wondered how long it could take him to wake up. He was clearly still breathing, that wasn’t the problem – simply, if he did not wake up soon enough, she’d have to find some way to give him water or feed him while he was asleep, without accidentally making him choke. She sighed at the thought, and decided to go do… something to take her mind off of this and think about it later.
She had a lute somewhere in the house. Surely she could play something after she had eaten breakfast. Or, lunch, if she thought by the passage of time.