Warnings: None

Word count: 943


Chapter 7: Shadow, Thief, Assassin.

It's been three months since Kodlak Whitemane found the Dunmer in the Temple of Kynareth, fighting to heal his wounds. He is a member of the Circle now, a member of the pack, and Kodlak watches him with a certain level of pride. He is a fine Companion, strong with the potential to grow even stronger.

It has been three months of relative peace, and it is shattered in a moment.

She comes like a shadow, like a thief, like an assassin, unnoticed until they are made aware of her. She is another elf, a Bosmer, small for her kind (almost the height of the average Nord male) but no less dangerous for it. She stands in the doorway for a long moment before her sharp red eyes lock onto her prey.

Erin sits straight in his seat and stares back at her, green eyes swirling with a million different emotions: worry, surprise, sheer and utter joy. Farkas and Vilkas fall silent when they notice his stillness, and his soft words are rare enough that the whole hall falls quiet when he speaks.

"It's been too long, Amelia."

The Companions watch her with wary eyes, and Amelia does not blame them. She knows how disconcerting she can be, with her tranquil posture and her strange way of moving and the aura of death that surrounds her weapons and, by contact, surrounds her. There are few that are easy in her presence. A whole group of them are in Riften. One particular elf in all the way in Solitude at the moment (or, should be).

The last sits beside her.

Erin sits closer to Amelia than is strictly necessary, but Amelia doesn't mind. They haven't seen each other for at least a half a year at this point; in fact, they haven't exchanged anything more than letters and little gifts since Alduin's fall. Of the trio, Erin has always been the most distant. Amelia understands, especially considering when they come from- where he comes from. She doesn't want him to change, not really; however, watching him talk with the Companions (her silent comrade, actually talking), Amelia finds that she wouldn't mind that much if he did.

But that's not what she's here for, and Erin can tell. He slips away sometime between Amelia joining the table and her getting into a conversation with Aela about proper bow form and returns sometime not long after decked out in armor with a packed bag resting against his seat. There's a worried look on his face (of course there is, Amelia hasn't told him anything yet), but he trusts her, and that's what matters. Amelia frowns at the blades slung across the small of his back; they are not his blades, the ones that were made for him and that are a part of him, and she wonders how he can separate himself in such a way.

Outside the doors of Jorrvaskr is the first time Amelia touches Erin in over six months. He hugs her, tightly, one arm around her waist and the other around her neck. He has to hunch to tuck his face into the junction of her shoulder and neck. Amelia hugs him back with all of the gentleness of an older sister (which is strange, for her, as she is the youngest of their trio), stroking his hair and pressing her face into the side of his head. It feels like it's been so long. She has missed him, Amelia realizes, and it is a horrible kind of feeling that she never wants to feel again.

(Later, she will sit by Aer's side in the Blue Palace in Solitude and hold his hand firmly within her own. She will tell him all that she saw on her travels, all that she felt. She will make up for the time they have missed, as though they'd never missed it; it will have been about eight months, at that point, and Aer would still not have seen so much as hide nor hair of Erin.

Amelia will hug him with strength enough for both herself and for Erin. She will remind them that they are still family, that they will always be family. She will remind them that even family needs time apart, and that they will be stronger for this. She will remind him that they have been through worse, that this will not be what tears them apart.

Later, the three of them will hug as a family again, smiling and victorious.)

Amelia tugs at Erin's ponytail and thunks her head against his. It makes him laugh, and that's what she wanted. There are two people waiting to speak with her, she knows, and she wants to have that discussion somewhere away from the object of the conversation. She tells him to wait for her at Breezehome, to collect everything they might need for a good month's journey.

Erin disappears into Whiterun, and Amelia turns to face the headsmen. Farkas and Vilkas (well, really just Vilkas, because Farkas is rather a very silent man) drill her on anything and everything they think to be necessary. She stands calm through it all. She can understand where they are coming from, sort of; after all, Erin is her brother as well as their mate. She goes with their reluctant blessings and smiles as she does.

(She will ask Erin about his mates later, long after they have left Whiterun behind them, and receive only a confused look for her troubles. It is then that she will realize just how oblivious her poor brother is about his own love life.)