It was six in the morning. Delphine stood outside in the old courtyard of the ancient Blades' ruins. She watched the sun rise over the mountaintops as she had every day for the past week. She heard quiet footsteps approaching, and she eagerly turned around, frowning when she saw the young Imperial.
"He's not coming, you know," Illia said.
"You don't know that," Delphine said, turning around to face the mountains once more.
"It's been nine days."
"He just needs more time," Delphine assured both Illia and herself. "He'll realize that I'm right."
"Are you?"
Delphine turned around to look at the new Blade, frowning at her. "Of course I am," Delphine said. "I know about these things. I'm a Blade; I have been for a long time."
"And he's the Dragonborn," Illia replied. "He's dealt with more dragons than you have."
"Paarthurnax has done unforgivable things," Delphine countered.
"So have I," said Illia. "I sat by and let my mother commit atrocities. Sitting by and doing nothing was just as bad as if I had committed those wrongdoings.
"I've tried to redeem myself since then. With the help of the Dragonborn I killed my own mother. Didn't the dragon do the same with his brother, Alduin?"
"Paarthurnax can't be trusted," Delphine argued.
"That doesn't change the fact that the Dragonborn trusts him," Illia pointed out.
"Are you trying to say something?" Delphine asked angrily. "If you want to leave the Blades then just say so."
Illia raised an eyebrow, surprised that Delphine would suggest such a thing. "I never said that I wanted to leave. I made a vow to you that I would stay and dedicate my life to the Blades, but the Dragonborn made no such promise. You shouldn't be so certain that he will return.
"You showed him the destiny of the Dragonborn, but that dragon, Paarthurnax, showed him how to be the Dragonborn.
"You very well may be waiting in vain."
"No," Delphine said certainly, despite her hidden doubt, "when he comes my waiting won't have been for nothing."
"All right then," Illia said dubiously, "if you say so."
Illia left, returning back into the dark, long forgotten base where the few remaining Blades now resided. Delphine went back to looking at the sunrise, remembering Esbern's nightmare that he had described to her a while back. She remembered the final conversation she'd had with the Dragonborn before he had left.
"He'll do the right thing," Delphine told herself. Noticing a small rock on the stone tiles, she kicked it off of the ledge and watched it fall. "Whatever that is."