Then the text changed one last time, letter by agonising letter.
The download finished at 3:14 AM.
Not faded—stopped, mid-note. Like a needle ripped from a record. Then the text changed one last time, letter
The doors to the Sleeping Giant Inn hung ajar. Inside, the fire pit was lit, but no one sat around it. Delphine’s key was on the bar. The room beyond, where Orgnar usually slept, was dark.
The game crashed to desktop. The torrent client still showed 100% seeding. She closed it. She closed the browser. She sat in the dark for a long time, the only sound the hum of her laptop’s fan winding down. Like a needle ripped from a record
She pressed dial.
The escape from Helgen was muscle memory. Sneak, steal the key, follow Hadvar, cut through the keep. But when she emerged into the blinding daylight of the Riverwood path, something was wrong. Delphine’s key was on the bar
Behind Sihja, the breathing returned. Louder now. Close enough to fog the back of her character’s neck.
She walked to the back room. The wardrobe that hid the secret passage to the basement—the one Delphine uses later for the Thalmor Embassy quest—was already open. Inside, instead of a wall, there was a ladder. Going down .
Then she saw the statue.