Diary Entry #4: Dragon Dilemma

21st of Evening Star, 4E 201

I’m going to have a nasty scar where Mercer stabbed me. The wound has ached constantly since Karliah stitched it closed.

Yesterday Mercer ordered me to accompany him to Snow Falls Sanctum. He wanted to find and kill Karliah, and he had me lead the way. I didn’t understand why until later.

I had suspected that he was hiding something for some time, but I couldn’t discover what it was in time.

I was shot by an arrow, and suddenly I couldn’t move. I watched a conversation between Mercer and Karliah, then Karliah fled, and Mercer stabbed me in the chest as casually as he might take out the garbage. I managed to capture a few images before the world went black, hoping that whoever found my corpse would use them to find my murderer.

I awoke later, to my immense surprise, alive but in considerable pain. Karliah shot me deliberately, her arrow tipped with a paralytic poison that slowed my heart beat. It was the only reason I lived.

Karliah told me the truth of some things, that Mercer had killed Gallus. She didn’t tell me the reason, but from their conversation I suspect greed was a factor.

Now I’m running myself ragged again. Gallus had a journal that Karliah believes holds answers, but it’s in the Falmer language. It’s beautiful to look at it, but neither of us could read it.

Karliah sent me to visit Enthir at the College. I knew he was somewhat duplicitous, but even I was surprised by his connection to the Thieves Guild. I shouldn’t have been. He directed me to Calcelmo in Markarth. A little sweet talking earned me a key to his museum, and from there I infiltrated his laboratory and found his research.

At the moment I’m trying to relax near the blacksmith. The fragrance of pine is a soothing tonic, as is the sound of the rushing water below. The morning is cool, and fog still wreaths the mountains in the distance.

None of them are able to help solve my dilemma. Ambarys’s list of Kethrina sightings are all places I’ve been. I was afraid of this. I normally wouldn’t mind being mistaken for Kethrina, if I wasn’t also tasked with finding her.

And sooner or later, someone will notice their dragon slayer is a Dunmer, not a Bosmer. What will I do then?