26th of Heartfire, 4E201
We woke up early this morning, and had a nice breakfast at the inn. My appetite hadn't fully returned yet, nor had my energy. I had a stamina potion to help me get some energy back, then we went over our plans for the day. I wanted to buy the house for sale in town, and we'd need to stock plenty of supplies for our trip to Labyrinthian. We left most of our gear at the inn for now, and headed to the Dragonsreach to see the steward. When we got there, and the steward greeting me as a thane, Marcurio seemed surprised and impressed. I paid the steward for the house, and went ahead and bought all of the furnishings and supplies for it. It would take a few hours for the house to be ready, which meant we'd have plenty of time for shopping. On the way out, I introduced Marcurio to Lydia, and told her that I'd finally bought a house in town. She seemed relieved that she wouldn't have to sleep in the servant's quarters of Dragonsreach anymore. I told her it would be a few hours before it was ready, and she thanked me and went to pack her things. As we headed to the market, Marcurio asked me how I'd managed to become Thane here too. I told him about fighting the dragon here, and getting the Jarl's court wizard the dragon stone from Bleak Falls Barrow to help figure out why and how dragons were returning after so long. I also told him about the other people in town, and how I'd helped a few of them. He asked about Lydia, and I told him that the Jarl had assigned her to be my house carl. As we shopped for supplies, he wanted to know why I hadn't had her following me around and guarding me. I explained that at the time, Jenassa had been with me. He got quiet after that, then changed the subject to what foods we should take with us. After we bought the food, he apologized for bringing up Jenassa. I told him it was alright, since he hadn't known.

We had lunch, then checked on the progress of the house being ready before doing some some shopping for alchemy ingredients. I wanted to make some potions  for the journey, and sell some to make some extra septims. While I was buying ingredients from Arcadia, she asked if I was alright and mentioned that I looked sick. I would have been concerned, except that she always said things like that. The last time I'd been here she'd asked if I had the rattles. I suspected it was an attempt by her to sell more potions. I spent a while making potions, and Marcurio sat in the corner reading a book.

After selling a few potions and buying some, we went to check on the house. It was all ready to move in, thankfully. We got our gear from the inn, and put everything we didn't think we'd need in Labyrinthian in the house. Lydia even had a room of her own, and made herself comfortable. As we were putting up our non essentials, Marcurio mentioned being worried about our funds getting low after buying the house and everything. I told him he'd never have to worry about that, so long as I had some iron ore. He looked confused, until I showed him what I was talking about. I didn't have any iron ore on me, so we headed to the blacksmith and I bought a chunk of it. Then, I cast the spell, turning it into a chunk of silver ore. After I handed it to him so he could see that it was actually silver now, I took it back and cast the spell again, turning it into solid gold. I gave it to him, and told him he could keep it. He looked so amazed and almost worshipful. Then, he got on his knees, and begged me to never fire him. He also vowed to follow me to Oblivion and back, if need be. People were starting to stare, but he didn't get up until I promised to never fire him. I went to the house to pack my bags for our journey, and he said he'd be there in a moment, but he had some shopping to do. He returned not long after that, with a bag full of all of the iron ore that had been available for sale in town. I turned it all to gold for him as he packed, chuckling at how silly he was the whole time.

We decided to leave that afternoon, and take a carriage back to Morthal to stay at the inn there. Then, we'd get up early, and head to Labyrinthian. We told Lydia goodbye, and I gave her some septims to buy anything she'd need while we were gone. She promised to watch the house for me, and  we went out to hire the carriage.

That night, we made it to Morthal in time to have a nice relaxing dinner, with plenty of time for sleep afterwards. Jonna was happy to see us again, and made sure our food was amazing. When we told her where we were going tomorrow, she looked worried and asked us to be careful. I spent some time writing after dinner, then we both got ready for bed to get some sleep. Marcurio promised to cook us a nice and energizing breakfast in the morning. I was worried about tomorrow, and I hoped we'd make  it out, and manage to find the Staff. The College, and perhaps all of Skyrim, was counting on me to stop Ancano.