Day 24 - Solitude - A secret that must stay a secret

I was finally able to sneak away to the Dour after dinner and read the old book.  What I read was amazing.  It tells a few stories that I had never heard before.  One was of the Pale Lady, a ghost who wanders the northern marshes looking for her lost daughter – poor soul.  Another was of the "Red Eagle", who was an ancient king who drove back the armies of Cyrodiil with a flaming sword.

But the one that was the most intriguing was of the 'Forbidden Legend' of the Archmage Gauldur.  It seems that in the First Era there lived a wizard that was so powerful and knowledgeable that all of the Jarls and kings of the time would seek his counsel and aid.

So, when he was murdered, there were many upset people.  Some blamed the murder on
one of his sons while others said that King Harald, jealous of his power, gave the order. It wasn't long before the pressure became too much and Gauldur's three sons fled into the night, pursued by a company of King Harald's best warriors and his personal battlemage.

The chase went on for days, reaching from the wilds of the Reach to the glacial ice of the north.   Once all three were killed, the king demanded that all records of their murders and their father's good deeds destroyed.

After I finished the book, I returned to the college and sought out the counsel of Giraud Germane, who was reading in the library.  The moment he saw the book he demanded that I tell him where I got it.  After I explained where I found it, he instructed me to I forget everything I read inside of it.

"Why?" I asked, confused.

"It is not your place to ask," he snapped at me, "but rather to do as you are told.  The story you read is a forbidden story – we bards are not allowed to even whispers rumors about what happened that day."

"But it was so long ago-" I began.

"You are not allowed to speak of this.  Do you understand?"

From the look on his face, I knew better than to go against him, "Yes, sir."

"Now, go to bed and forget you ever read this book."

As I turned towards the door, I saw him rise and toss the book into the fire.  The old pages caught right away and I knew the book was gone forever.

But as I lie here in bed, that story is still haunting me.  I want to know why they struck all mention of the brothers' murders or their father's good deeds from the records.  Then I remembered something – one of the brothers had died in the ruins of Folgunthur which sit at the foot of Solitude. I wonder if there was anything left there to see even now….