I travel down to the town, across a small bridge and along a road. Windhelm is only accessible via a large fortified bridge, so I have to once more cross the river to get to it. As I approach the bridge, I notice an encampment of Khajiit next to the Windhelm stables.
The Khajiit are a strange humanoid cat-people, and though their language and custom is different from mine, I approach and we trade with each other. Throughout, the merchant named Ma'dran remains cross-legged in front of his animal skin tent.
Windhelm is a big place, encircled by a large stone wall. The snow snow falls around me as I cross the bridge, passing numerous guards on the way. My entrance to the town is via a tall metal door, which I enter without any fuss made. I'd have thought the conjurer blood dousing me would have made them think twice.
Inside, I speak with the towns folk. By the sound of things, the dark elves are not universally liked here, and their kind appear to have been forced into a shantytown ghetto. Why they are so hated, I have yet to find out, but I am not comfortable with this unabashed racism.
As I work my way through town, I remind myself that a child called Aventus Arentino lives here. He left the orphanage in Riften, intent on finding the Dark Brotherhood assassins guild to murder the old hag who ran the place. One of the other workers in the orphanage told me about this, and she wants me to ensure he doesn't act irrationally. In all honesty, I don't blame him - I've met the hag too, and she is a nasty piece of work.
My excellent tracking skills soon lead me to the house where Arventus is living. He has locked the front door, so I have to use a lockpick to carefully let myself in. The house is dusty, filled with cobwebs, and I find him in the main room, surrounded by candles and some bones - he is clearly a very disturbed child.
As I approach him, I can here him reciting the Black Sacrament, the verse used to draw the Dark Brotherhood to a person. He turns to face me, and rather than being scared by a strange adult breaking into his house, is genuinely excited to see me. He believes that I have been sent from the brotherhood, to answer his prayer for the hag at the orphanage to me murdered.
Of course I am not, but he won't listen to me, and insists that I leave quickly to begin my mission. He seems safe enough here on his own, so I nod slowly, and walk backwards and out of the crazy boy's home.
I'm feeling tired by this point, it's been a long day. So I enter the Candlehearth Hall, a large inn in the middle of the town. A warm fire burns, and the innkeeper is hospitable. But before I can ask her for a bed for the night, a drunk approaches me, and challenges me to a fight.
He doesn't really stand a chance. I punch him again and again and again, and he is soon on the floor asking for mercy. I give it to him, and he gives me some gold. Not that I asked for it. If anything, it'll pay for me rest, and then some.
I return to the innkeeper, and she shows me to my room. I thank her, close the door, and am asleep before my head hits the pillow.
