This was just another quickie while I'm sorting out things for the Dad! Rewrites and for my other stories that need to be updated. I've had this idea floating around because I was highly upset that I could not adopt a child in Skyrim. I want to yell at Bestheda for not making it so! Those kids need love too!
D-D
The rumors of a small child trying to contact the Dark Brotherhood in Windhelm had perked her interest. Eira had spent most of her life training in the shadows just to find her chance to become of the family she had sought for years. Her black dyed leather armor served her well throughout the years when sneaking into homes' and so breaking into the Aretino house to find the boy who was awaiting an assassin. Her hazel eyes quickly scanned the street for guards or witnesses to her break-in. So, she slipped into the home and quietly closed the door behind her; that was when she heard a small child chanting The Black Sacrament. Sneaking up the stairs she heard the boy continue,
"Why won't you come? Please…" His voice cracked and she frowned because this poor child had been waiting for an assassin for probably a month or more.
Eira came upon the room he was in and stood straight up, the boy looked up at her and yelped in glee.
"I knew you would come! I just knew it!" The boy jumped up and ran over to her and hugged her legs.
She smiled and patted the boy's head,
"I had been waiting and chanting…But that doesn't matter anymore! I want Grelod the Kind dead!" Eira slowly eased the boy from her legs and rummaged through her pack.
She produced an apple from her pack and handed it to him,
"Oh! Well, thank you. Mom taught me not to eat things that had black spots on them, that they're bad." He took a bite out of the apple then continued to speak.
"My mom was killed and I was sent to the Honorhall Orphange. Grelod the Kind beat us all! She's cruel and…and.." Tears began to come from his eyes and Eira stroked his head.
"Do not worry. I will kill her." He smiled and wiped his eyes on his sleeve.
"Thank you." Leaving the boy alone was hard for her.
Children always had a soft spot in her heart because she too had been an orphan once trying to make it on her own. It brought a smile to her face as she exited the city and looked for a carriage; this was something she would not take her time on. There was an orphanage full of children who were waiting to be freed from the tyranny of a certain old hag.
D-D
Grelod the Kind lay in a blood of her own blood and the orphans of Honorhall were better off. Eira pushed a strand of her blonde from her face. No one knew that she had killed Grelod the Kind except for one little girl who hadn't been sleeping but, the little girl actually smiled when she saw that Grelod was dead and even mouthed a 'thank you' as she slipped from the hall. Oh how she wanted to take all of them home with her but Breezehome only had enough room for one child and though all of the children deserved a good home, Aventus had captured her heart. He would know what she was but he wouldn't care because he had been the one to order Grelod's death. Eira frowned because she knew she couldn't stomach being a stall vendor or a tavern wench and he deserved at least one normal parent. She had no husband and knew she might never take one but, she would give Aventus anything he needed. Eira drew a long breath before looking around for guards, one had just past her so she stole into the Aretino house. Finding Aventus sleeping against the wall by the burnt corpse of his mother, she knelt down to him and shook him gently.
"Aventus. You must wake child." She whispered and he slowly roused from his sleep.
"Is she..?" He rubbed his tired eyes free of sleep.
"Shh. Here child, I've brought you another apple." His eyes lit up as she pulled it out of her pack and handed it to him.
"Thank you. Why are you being so nice to me? Aren't you only supposed to care about getting gold?" Eira smiled at him,
"Do you care about gold Aventus?" He shook his head and took a bite of the apple.
"I do not care for gold Aventus." He swallowed what he had chewed and looked at her with a confused face.
"Aventus, what will you do now that Grelod is dead?" He shrugged,
"I've been thinking about living here."
"By yourself? How will you afford food and keep the home warm child?"
"I can try! I watched Da do it a few times! And I know a few things about food since I watched my mother cook a few times…"
"Aventus, why don't you come and live with me? I have a nice home, not as big as this but there will always be food and warmth. You can play with the other children in the town whenever you like." She watched him furrow his brow as he thought.
"But what about my mother? What will happen to her?" Eira eyed the corpse.
What was there to be done about the body? There was barely enough to be buried but she figured that was what he wanted. She had a bit of coin to have her buried so, sighing she looked back Aventus.
"I will have her buried with your Da. I will go make the arrangements. Grab the things you want to take with you and we shall make our way to Whiterun when I return." He nodded and she left the house for the Hall of the Dead.
"You are Eira, DragonBorn?" Eira turned around to see a courier standing behind her shifting on his feet.
"Yes." He pulled out a note from his pocket.
"This is for you, doesn't say who from." She gave him 3 gold and he ran off.
She opened the sealed note and only two words were scrawled on the paper, 'We Know'. A smile graced her lips as she rolled the note up and put it in her pack at her hip.
Eira wasn't a big fan of any Hall of Dead and Windhelm's hall was no different. The caretaker seemed to be crazy but she agreed to bury Aventus's mother. Paying a guard fifty gold to come and get the body later that day after she left the hall.
"Aventus, have you gathered your things?"
"Yes Ma'am." She walked up the stairs to the Aretino home and saw him with a knapsack on his shoulders.
"We will have to think of a new name for you Aventus. We do not want anyone thinking you are the Aretino child." Eira opened the front door and looked for anyone near the house; it was getting dark so many were going to Candlehearth Hall for an ale or two.
"Do I have to?" She moved out of the house and he followed her outside when she motioned for him.
"You shouldn't be ashamed of your name child but you don't need this life any longer. If anyone realizes you are Aventus they might try to take you to Honorhall." He latched onto her midsection and pushed his face onto her stomach.
"I don't want to go back." He whimpered.
She slowly moved him from her and looked down at him,
"You must be strong. Remember that Aventus. Think on a name that you would want to be called before we reach Whiterun.
"Yes Ma'am." She ushered him out of the city and onto a carriage waiting to take them to Whiterun.
D-D
"Aventus, we have arrived at Whiterun." Eira whispered and smoothed his hair.
He looked up from her lap then sat up,
"What do you name have you chosen?" Eira asked as the carriage stopped at the stable.
She jumped off of the carriage and helped Aventus off,
"I-I did not think of one." He muttered nervously but Eira just smiled.
"Of course you did not. You are but a child! I have thought of several." He grinned warily at her as he followed her up the hill to Whiterun.
"Jonus, Silius, Wulf, Dion…what were the others?"
"I like Silius."
"A strong Imperial name. Silius. Yes, I agree with your choice Silius."
They reached the gate and he looked up at her,
"Do I….Do I have to call you mother?" Eira smiled down at him and pushed the door to the town open.
He scurried into the town and watched as she came in behind him.
"In public you may have to call me such but when we are home you may call me Eira if it pleases you." She whispered and waved to Adrianne Avenicci as they passed WarMaiden's,
"Eira! Eira!" A few children came up to her and Aventus hid behind her.
"Yes?"
"Who's that?" The three children (Braith, Lars and Mila) all looked at Aventus.
"This is Silius, my son." Eira moved Aventus in front of her.
"H-Hi." He stammered and the children laughed.
"You should play with us sometime! We play tag and…and—"
"You can play Hide-and-Seek too!" Braith said as she shoved Lars back from Aventus.
"He will have enough time to play with you when he gets settled in, now go play."
"Okay!" The three ran off and Eira quickly got both of them into Breezehome.
Aventus looked around the house and saw books on the shelves saw a ladder to a floor upstairs. He then looked at Eira who took her pack off and set it on a chair by the fire pit,
"Where will I sleep?" He asked and she pointed to the ladder.
"I have a room and you have your own."
"I get my own room? It's not right next to yours is it? Mom and Da they used to be real noisy sometimes and—" His lips quivered and so she came over and knelt down to him.
"You have to be strong for them; they would want you to be a strong lad." He nodded as he sniffled a few times.
Eira stood back up and climbed up the ladder then motioned for him to follow so, he climbed up the ladder. She pointed towards the room to the left of her and he looked inside of it,
"It has an end table and a bed. I can add a shelf or if you see something that can be hung from a wall then I can hang it up for you." He moved into the room and set his knapsack on the bed.
"Thank you Eir—I mean, mom." She smiled at him and leaned against the doorway as she envisioned him growling up to be a great man.
"This new life is what you make it Silius. Remember that."