"Assume I have."

"...alright. Uh... Wow, I have no idea how to explain the war. Ulfric Stormcloak, jarl of Windhelm¹, killed the High King in Solitude², which the Empire—how deep under a rock do you live, you do know about the Empire?—alright, the Empire considered high treason but Ulfric wants to fight it and free Skyrim from it. So now half the holds of Skyrim favour Ulfric and the other half favour the Empire."

(¹ Capital of Eastmarch.)
(² Capital of Haafingar, the northwestern hold of Skyrim.)

"I... see." He's gonna need to ask someone at the College about it. "And Whiterun is with the Empire?"

"Whiterun is neutral, so far, which—I am really not the best person to tell you about this. Maybe you could go ask about it in Dragonreach*? The court wizard would probably tell you if you asked, since you're a mage, too."

(* The hold of the jarl of Whiterun.)

"...later, maybe. I should go fetch your ring, now. And—thank you for the warning."

"No problem."

Time to ride.

The ethereal horse spell is somewhat finnicky, and he doesn't get it right away. The first couple of horses he summons aren't as good as the ones he got from the Scrolls, and he has to dismiss them and tweak the spell a few times to get it right. Eventually he does, though, and he can enjoy the ride in the same mostly-absent-minded way as before, and get to studying more spells. In particular, he wants to study conjured weapons because he is really mad about the Valtheim Towers actually.

He... probably can't do anything about it right now. He shouldn't do anything about it right now. He's barely field-tested, and going up against a whole bandit camp would be a bad idea, even if he's a mage and mages are bullshit. But he's burning with righteous anger and learning how to fight will help him do something about it.

Skyrim really is beautiful.

He hasn't had the conscious thought before but now that he's confident enough in his riding that he can mostly not pay attention to it (he probably would have to with a real horse but haha mages are bullshit) it really is stark how pretty the landscape is. The mountains are breathtaking, the roads wind through woods and valleys that could be paintings, even the ruins are beautiful. He thinks...

Well, he doesn't know why he had the strong feeling he should go to the College, but he hasn't had any other similarly strong feelings about anything else, nor is he feeling some inexorable pull towards the College again, so.

He thinks he wants to travel, sometime. See all of Skyrim, and maybe eventually all of Tamriel. He wasn't feeling it, before, but now he thinks if he were just to be back at the College and study he'd get stir-crazy and claustrophobic. There's just so much more.

The Valtheim Towers are beautiful, too. Somewhat ruined, it seems, but even with the bandits having taken over they're still a monument to human ingenuity and craft.

The Valtheim Towers

Well. Ruby can't take them, and he doesn't want to detour. So he supposes what he's going to do instead is...

...run like hell.

He casts Oakflesh, then summons a ward around himself, then readies a heal, and he rides.

Someone tries to stop him. The have to jump out of the way of his horse.

Multiple someones try to shoot arrows at him. Most of them bounce off his wards.

Two people try to chase him on their horses. Their horses aren't conjured creatures that can gallop nonstop.

Ruby can outrun them.

Wow that was intensely unpleasant. Most arrows missed him but three did not, though at least they mostly didn't penetrate him very deeply because of the wards and Oakflesh, and only one is still embedded in his arm by the time he loses his pursures.

Fucking, ow.

He pulls it off and sets his heal on to fix the wounds, and he is really extremely fucking mad.

Ruby's kind of surprised by how mad he feels? For some reason he didn't expect it. But it's very easy to determine why: he's outraged on behalf of the common people. He's angry at the jarls for withdrawing their patrols from a major chokepoint on a major road, hes angry at Ulfric Stormcloak for sparking a civil war (he's not yet sure whether it's justified, but he's angry anyway), and he's angry at the bandits for preying on the vulnerable.

He's going to fix it. He's not sure how, just clearing the fort would help but it wouldn't fix it, but he is, nevertheless, going to fix it.

The best way to get to Witchmist Grove, according to the person he consulted about it, is to get to Mixwater Mill and then cross the river there; there's a waterfall a little bit past the mill and the river is shallow there, so if he's quick and sure with his horse he can easily do it.

He has a magic horse, so of course he can do it.

And from there it's a day's ride to the grove.

Without the benefit of roads, Ruby will have to rely on landmarks. There's a cave he has to ride past, and a small sulfurous lake, and if he keeps riding west he'll soon see the grove in the distance, standing out from the salt flats easily enough. And once he gets there, his destination isn't hard to find, either: a wooden shack surrounded by sharp stakes, with the heads of various animals impaled in some of them.

Wooden Shack

...wow, he must've lied through his teeth about this place to Ysolda, what the fuck.

He stops before the aperture between the stakes and calls, "Hello? Is anyone there?"

Someone is, in fact, there. "Darling! I've been waiting for you to return, to consummate our love!"

A little bell sounds in his head as he recognises the species of this person: a hagraven, someone who went through a dark ritual and fused with a sacrificed bird in order to acquire dread powers.

"Hagraven feather" was one of the items Sam said were needed to fix the staff.

"Um... I'm afraid there's been a terrible misunderstanding."

"What's wrong, my love?"

Ughhhhh.

Honesty it is.

"I, uh. I was really drunk," he admits, "and I don't actually remember you, and don't think we should get married."

She screeches, a sound like a crow in horrible pain.

...yeah. He might be breaking her heart here.

"And, um, do you have Ysolda's ring?" He'll understand if the hagraven doesn't want to give it back, honestly, and he'll have to figure something out if so. He's not gonna force her.

"No!" she screeches again. "Liar! You just want the ring to give it to Esmerelda, with the dark feathers, don't you? I won't let her have you!"

And she pounces.

—woah what the fuck lady. He barely dodges in time, and then he has to dodge again and again while he casts an Oakflesh and a Ward because those talons look terrifyingly sharp.

"You don't need to give it back! It's fine! We can just talk about it!"