Carico didn't sleep much that night and not because of the rain battering the house all night long. He spent most of it staring out the window. The moonlight reflected off his orange eyes and yellow skin. Hit pointed nose and ears would have been easily visible to any and all that looked up at the window. He kept thinking about Alana. He blamed himself. It was his fault that the building collapsed. When he had cast the Blizzard spell the house's foundations froze and became fragile and they collapsed under the weight of the very thing they were made to support. He also blamed himself for allowing her to walk back to her house alone; if she'd stayed she would have been with him and not in the collapsing building. And now she was gone, and it was all because of him. Or so he thought…
With both parents out at work, Muilana, Carico's sister, comforted him when he woke up the next morning. Muilana was 2 years older than Carico. She hugged Carico and brushed her braided hair from her face as she stroked his head. She treated him like a baby, but Carico didn't mind. Muilana was nice to Carico, even before the tragedy, unlike his 2 brothers. Ivliano and Merimo, the twins, were jealous of Carico. He was the youngest in the family, but also the fittest and most talented at magic. As a family of Altmer, magic was an important thing to them, and Carico was the best of them all. Ivliano and Merimo teased Carico for liking a Nord. Like most Altmer, they see Nords as uncivilised, barbaric and simply an inferior race to themselves. Carico had been living in Skyrim since he was 4, so he'd known Nords all his life. His brothers had been living in Summerset Isles for almost 10 years before the family moved to Skyrim, and by comparison to Altmer the Nords were savages in their eyes. Even under the given circumstances the twins teased Carico. Carico didn't reply, he was far more intelligent than them and could have said something that only offended them about 2 days later, when they finally worked it out, but he really wasn't in the mood. Carico walked up stairs with a bread roll and a tankard of water. In his sombre mood everything outside the window became fascinating. He only got to enjoy it for 6 seconds before Muilana started screaming at the twins. The twins instantly decided that the tragedy was no longer funny.
Carico spent his time upstairs trying not to burst into an uncontrollable cascade of tears while Muilana tried to find the words to describe how angry she was at Ivliano and Merimo, but it was pointless, the twins were gone, Carico didn't know where and didn't care. There was a gentle knock at the door. It was Alana's father. Carico didn't notice him walk to the door even though he was staring out the window. Carico heard the door open, he listened very carefully. "Excuse me. Are Mr and Mrs Gerendiil here?" Said an old man in a gruff voice.
"Maybe, maybe not. Depends who's askin'." Came Muilana's answer.
"Oh." The man sounded disappointed. "It's just…a young boy that lives here, was very good friends with my daughter and-" Muilana had just worked out who she was talking to and instantly, and very deeply, regretted what she had said.
"Oh, gods." Was all she could manage. "You're Alana's…?
"Father, yes."
"I'm terribly sorry. Both for your loss and my rudeness, I hope you'll forgive me."
"It's quite all right, dear. If he doesn't mind I would quite like to speak with the young boy who was friends with Alana."
"Certainly." Muilana ushered Alana's father in to the house and poured him some strong ale per his request, then she went upstairs, gently knocked on Carico's door and told him that he had a visitor. Carico didn't like being called a young boy, he was almost 17 years old, but he had gotten used to it from Alana's father.
Carico said the first word after half a minute of awkward silence. "I'm sorry. I'm so very sorry."
"Whatever for? It was hardly your fault." Carico's heart lifted a little bit, but it sank in that the old man in front of him probably had no idea what caused it, but he still remained hopeful.
"It wasn't me? I thought my Blizzard weakened the supports."
"Child, this is Skyrim. We have blizzards all year-round." Carico realised how stupid he'd been. In Summerset Isle a Blizzard spell may have done that kind of damage but in Skyrim houses were built specifically to resist the severe cold.
They had a long discussion and after what felt like an eternity. The man stopped talking. He got up to leave, but didn't. He stood on the spot, Carico thought he looked completely still. The man finally spoke with a soft voice. "I have 2 things to tell you." Carico looked up expectantly. After another few seconds the man said. "Alana is alive." Carico's heart raced, he had never thought there was any chance of her surviving the collapse. "The building collapsing was no accident." Carico's relief changed to anger, hatred was flowing through his blood, hatred and magic.
"Do you know who did it?"
"I do indeed. I saw them do it." Carico wanted to demand to know why he hadn't stopped them, but that was for after he had obliterated the attempted-murderer.
"Give me a name, and their gone."
"Oh, I do not believe that will be so."
"Are you calling me a coward!?" Carico almost shouted.
"You are searching the room for what you seek when it is on the table in front of you."
"Stop talking in riddles, and give me a name." Carico felt himself losing control.
"Ivliano Gerendiil." The fire in Carico's heart extinguished. His legs fell from under him and he collapsed. "Oh, how ironic." The man said. Carico hadn't realized until his anger died that his father didn't at all seem upset, nor angry at his brother. He didn't really seem to care at all. Carico picked himself back up.
"You aren't upset." Carico said. The old man shrugged.
"She's alive." This made Carico furious.
"Oh, it's fine then. She's alive, so let's forget about the fact she's probably mentally traumatised, and physically injured and someone tried to kill her(!) Yep, all in the past(!)" The old man was oblivious to Carico's sarcasm.
"There you go, child! That's the spirit!"
"If Alana didn't love you I would send your heart into frenzy, and light a fire in your head."
"Ah, imaginative. How refreshing. Are you sure you're Altmer? You actually have a personality, that's unheard of among the Thalmor." This hurt Carico, he hated when Nords linked him to the Thalmor just because he was Altmer. He didn't know what to say.
The twins turned around the corner and entered the house. Ivliano stopped in his tracks. His strong orange eyes, quivering in terror. Carico acted quickly, he wasn't giving Ivliano the time to think of an alibi or an excuse. A river of Sparks erupted from Carico's hands and crawled through Ivliano's body sending him into spasms. When they stopped he knelt down exhausted. An Ice Spike hit him at a perfect angle, it went into his left knee and went down through the lower part of his leg and stopped at his ankle. Merimo was clueless. "I assume you had a part in this too?" Carico prepared another Ice Spike and aimed it at Merimo. Merimo wasn't sure Carico was talking to him; he was the least intelligent elf in their ancestry for a very long time. "Answer!"
"M-Me?" Merimo was trembling.
"Yes!" Carico hissed.
"N-n-o. A part in wha-what?" Carico wasn't convinced. He looked at Ivliano.
"Well? I don't particularly want to kill 2 people today, so if you tell me he's innocent I'll believe you." Carico didn't particularly want to kill anybody ever, but he couldn't let Ivliano know that.
"Wait, what? Innocent? What's wrong? What's this talk of ki-killing?" Merimo asked. Carico looked at Ivliano, partly glaring, partly waiting for an answer. After a few moments Ivliano shook his head.
"Merimo… Your twin made Alana's house collapse. On purpose." Merimo didn't catch what he said immediately, he thought he was joking. But as he looked at Carico and Ivliano he could tell this was no joke. He gasped in horror, he was sad, scared and angry – he was hungry as well but he tried not to let it show. All while this was going on Alana's father was leaning against the wall swigging a bottle of Black-Briar Mead. Carico had no idea where he got it from because they didn't have any at their house, so it couldn't have been what Muilana had offered him, but Carico didn't really care. Merimo summoned a Bound Battle-axe. This surprised Carico. He never though Merimo could do such things with magic.
"Now you listen, brother" Merimo snarled at Ivliano. "You told me you were fine with Carico liking a Nord and that you were teasing him about it just to tease him. I believed you. You told me you weren't really being mean and you were just messing… You are going to give me a good explanation to all of this or your head comes off." Carico had never seen this side of Merimo, but from what he'd just heard it seemed like Ivliano had Merimo under his wing - no, his control. Carico still thought it was weak of Merimo to give Ivliano any chance of getting off, even if he saw no way of Ivliano managing to give a good explanation. Or maybe that was why Merimo picked that, maybe he didn't want to give Ivliano a chance of avoiding justice, but still wanted his brother to think he had. Ivliano looked up and spat at him. Merimo brought his axe down hard and took Ivliano's right arm off. Ivliano screamed in pain and would have fallen over if not for the Ice Spike still un-melted in his leg. Muilana was watching the whole thing from an upstairs window. She didn't really know any of her brothers, she wanted to stay out of it and see how far they were willing to go. Merimo lifted the axe high above his head, he swung it down and brought it with a gentle thump into the snow. "I can't. I can't kill my twin."
"Of course you can't." Ivliano sneered. "We have a Destiny Bond. I die, you die. Suicide is murder and murder is suicide."
"Bonding yourself to another without their consent in illegal." Merimo said sadly, knowing he was defeated.
"And so is destroying houses in hopes to crush the people or person inside." Carico never thought of Ivliano as a criminal, just a bully. Either way, he needed punished.
"I'm not linked to you." Carico said. He prepared an Ice Spike in one hand and a Lightning Bolt in another as a back-up. But just as he was about to send the Ice Spike off he caught sight of Alana in the background. His eyes widened. He dashed forward, almost knocking Merimo flat on his back. He sprinted at her, laughing and smiling. Alana didn't recognize him at first because she couldn't get a good look at him as he was moving faster than she had seen him move in her life. When she realized who it was she laughed too and ran towards him. Carico wrapped his arms around her and lifted her off her feet, they both laughed and Carico set her back down. Alana groaned in pain. Carico had forgotten that she might be injured. Back at the house everyone, except Ivliano who was pinned facing the house, watched the reunion. In the distance.
"So, umm, can I go now?" Ivliano asked. "You can't kill me and the dozy old man in the corner doesn't even know what day it is." Merimo thought for a second. He summoned a familiar. "Sorry, buddy. The Familiar shares an Oblivion Bond with you." He didn't explain what this meant in hope Merimo wouldn't already know, because if he did he'd see why having the Familiar kill Ivliano would actually sever the Bond between Ivliano and himself. But intelligence really wasn't Merimo's strong point. He banished the Familiar. Ivliano just about hid his smile. Merimo knew Ivliano must face justice. He summoned his Bound Battle-axe again. He lifted it up. "Have you forgotten already? We share a Destiny Bond."
"No, I haven't. You have to die. Even if it means I die too. It's actually easier this way, even if you are a disgusting Mer, I wouldn't be able to live with myself if I killed my own twin, this way, I don't have too." Muilana was so impressed by Merimo's courage that it took her a second to realize what was actually going to happen. She screamed and cast a Fire Bolt. She had hoped to distract Merimo with the scream and tried to knock Merimo out of the way with the Fire Bolt. She had though rashly and hadn't considered that the Fire Bolt might actually kill Merimo and that she should have used something less lethal and faster, like Paralysis. But it missed, Merimo's whole body went forward with the swing and the Bound Battle-axe split Ivliano's head down the middle. Muilana screamed and cried.
Carico was enjoying his time with Alana, they sat on some rocks cuddled together. She told him about her time under the rubble and her injuries; she had a broken arm, a dislocated shoulder and 2 broken fingers. She explained how one of the supports fell and got caught in the wall sheltering her from some of it. Carico told her about how Ivliano deliberately destroyed the house. Carico thought about kissing her for the first time, but he thought the given circumstances would ruin the moment. She was mid-way through the story about her being rescued when they heard the scream as Muilana threw her Fire Bolt. They got up and looked in the direction of the scream. The view was blocked by some trees. They walked forward uncertainly and they caught sight of the scene. Carico couldn't make much out through the smoke, but he recognized his house. He started sprinting home just as Ivliano's head was divided and Muilana screamed again and started crying very loudly.
Carico and Alan arrived at the house just as Muilana made it down stairs.
"What's wrong?" Carico asked.
"Merimo killed Ivliano." Muilana replied slowly.
"Isn't that a good thing?" Alana asked but immediately regretted it and looked uncertainly at Carico, hoping she hadn't offended him After all, they were still brothers.
"You don't understand. Ivliano put a Destiny Bond on Merimo." Alana didn't know much about magic, but she knew what a Destiny Bound was, to some extent anyway.
"Oh, who did he link it to?" Carico was used to Alana's questions about magic but this question massively surprised Muilana.
"Destiny Bonds are always shared between the caster and the person they use it on. So seeing as Ivliano put the Bond on Merimo, Ivliano and Merimo were Bonded."
"Oh, I see."
"Merimo, why did you sacrifice yourself to kill him? You didn't have to die." Muilana said through tears.
"He's my brother." He said mournfully, "But he needed to be brought to justice. And I couldn't wait any longer to see his body headless." He added with a harsher tone. Carico didn't mention the fact that Ivliano's head was still on his body, just in 2 parts.
Merimo started to glow a pale purple. His body lost detail, his hair looked like 1 big clump, his eyes plain ovals and his ears rounded instead of the signature pointed elf ears. After a few seconds his skin turned translucent, then transparent and then he disappeared. His clothes fell to the floor. Muilana knelt beside Merimo's clothes, picked them up and cried into them. Carico fought back tears and Alana squeezed his hand to comfort him.
"Got any Alto Wine?" Alana's father asked Muilana, he hadn't even acknowledged Alana yet. Muilana ignored him but after a few seconds he caught Carico's glare. "Fine, ok. Mead will do." Alana stamped her foot and tried not to show that she did it so hard it sent a sharp pain up her leg. Both Alana and Carico glared at him now. "Whatever." He said before turning to walk off. "See ya' at home, darlin'" He said while walking.
When he was out of ear-shot Alana said, "That's what you think." Carico looked at her with confusion on his face. "Last time I left you look what happened. I'm staying for ever and ever." Carico managed a slight chuckle through his sadness.
"You do that if you want." Carico said.
"You think I'm joking, I'm serious."
"So am I."
"Good" Alana smiled at Carico.
"OK then." Carico smiled back. He looked back at his sister and his temporary moment of happiness deserted him. He walked over to her and helped her up. He put one arm around Muilana's back and one arm around Alana's and they walked into the house.
"So, are you serious about staying?" Muilana asked after her tears dried as they shared a fresh, warm bread roll. Alana looked at Carico because she wasn't sure if they were joking or not.
"You can stay if you want. You know my parents are always happy for you to stay, and that was when you had your own home as an alternative." He thought this sounded a bit harsh as soon as he said it.
"How about we wait for our parents to get back and ask them?" Muilana suggested. She took the plate over to the window. She held it outside and a washed it down with a bucket of water and a rag.
"Sure." Alana replied. Muilana undid the braids in her hair.
When Carico's parent's got back they yelled into the house. No one had moved Ivliano's body. Muilana and Carico told the story. Alana felt like she was intruding. After a lot more tears and the whole story told from start to finish Carico's mother, Eninwe, offered to let Alana stay as long as she wanted, they didn't need to be asked. Alana said she didn't feel right to stay, that she was worried she'd get in the way of family mourning. She was familiar with Carico's parents so she played them. She made them make her feel more welcome, by saying that she felt out of place, but she didn't push too hard that they retracted her offer or said something like, 'Well you don't have to stay.' Because then it would seem weird to just say, 'No, I want to.'
"Well, Alana, welcome to the family." Carico's father, Velenis, said. She smiled, he called her "family" "Eninwe and I are going to bed now, there are no rules about when you go to bed or wake up, but please be conscious of noise if not everyone else is awake. Feel free to take whatever you want. The general rule is if it isn't in a lockbox anyone is welcome to it. Have a look around and get used to where everything is. You're welcome to come and go as you want, spend a few nights with us and a few nights with you other family if you want, or a few nights here and stay with your other family, up to you, you are always welcome." Alana now had an ear-to-ear grin, "other family" he really counted her as one of his own. "You can have any room you like, except mine and Muilana's of course. We have no shortage of rooms now." He added grimly. It made her smile that Velenis didn't veto Carico's room as an option to sleep in, but she tried to hide it because of his last comment. With the parents in bed the 3 children had a casual conversation but none of them were really engaged. Alana was too busy trying to contain her fountain of happiness given the sombre mood. Despite all that had happened she had never been happier. Carico was confused. He was angry at Ivliano and Alana's father, happy that Alana could stay with him and upset about Merimo. He wasn't upset about Ivliano. The twins had bullied and teased him his whole life, he was upset about Merimo's fate because just before he died Carico found out that his actions were actually Ivliano's. Muilana was upset about Merimo too, she was also upset about Ivliano, but she wouldn't admit it.
"Well, I'm off to bed. Sleep well." Muilana said as she walked to the stairs. She got half way up and stopped. She looked back at them. "And, umm, Carico?"
"Yes?"
"Different beds for you and your girlfriend." She grinned.
"She's not my girlfriend." Carico mumbled.
"Aren't I?" Alana jokingly looked offended, and kissed Carico on the cheek. He blushed and his cheeks grew a tinge of orange. Muilana tried not to laugh in order to not disturb her parents. Carico was embarrassed, he felt awkward and had to get his own back, and fast. He pulled Alana close and gently kissed her on the lips. This time Alana blushed, but she didn't have yellow skin to mask it. She went bright red, Carico smiled, satisfied with the effect he had had on her.
"Oh, well that's no fun. You're meant to-" Muilana didn't get to finish.
"Good night, Muilana." Carico said interrupting her.
"Have sweet dreams, if you get that far." Carico and Alana quietly giggled.
Alana wanted to sleep in the same room as Carico. Carico's house scared her a little and she never knew why. She didn't know how to go about asking, so she waited and hoped Carico would offer. Carico lit a candle and led Alana up the stairs, holding her hand. When they got to the top Carico stopped. "You can have any but those 2." He said pointing out Muilana's and his parents' rooms. "Which do you want?"
"Umm… I-I don't know."
"You want to have a look inside them?"
"I don't know." She said again. Carico smiled knowingly.
"Come on then." He said and led her into his room. He set the candle on his nightstand and closed the door behind them. "I only have 1 bed because, well I only need 1." This made Alana smile but she wasn't sure why, maybe she was just happy to be with Carico. "I do have a bedroll as well though. You can sleep in the bed and I'll sleep in the bedroll."
"Ok." Alana agreed. Alana stripped down to her underwear and got into bed. Carico put the bedroll beside the bed and got in it. He then flicked his hand in the air and the candle went out. After about 10 minutes Alana said, "Carico are you awake?" Carico let out a small groan.
"Just about. Why?" Came the reply.
"Can you sleep in the bed with me?" Carico hadn't expected this as was unprepared.
"Don't worry, Alana. I'm right beside you."
"I know but I want to cuddle." Carico was beaten.
"I-uhh… Umm." Carico was very nervous.
"What?" Alana asked. She thought she had don't something wrong.
"I-uhh…I… I sleep naked." There were a few moments of silence.
"I don't mind if you don't." Carico giggled. He got out of the bedroll and slid in beside her and held her close.
"Just err…keep your hands in appropriate places." Alana giggled seductively.
"Maybe…" she said. They both giggled and smiled though neither of them could see each other very well in the darkness.
Carico kissed her on the forehead and touched his forehead on hers. She bit his long nose playfully. Carico giggled again and slid his hand down her back and rested it on her bum. She stroked his bared chest. And after about 5 minutes they were fast asleep. The worries, fears, and tragedies evaporated instantly, but giggles, laughs and playfulness would stay with them forever.