Nightfall had a strange way of taking forever to arrive, Farkas noticed, when he was waiting for something good. He would be sure to ask his brother about why that happened. If he could find the time to speak to Vilkas, that was.

Tilma had asked Farkas to chop some firewood for cooking and heating water again. He never minded helping the kind old woman, and was happy to have busy work to help the day pass. It also kept him from having to think too hard about why Jorrvaskr seemed so empty.

His father Jergen had passed. Arnbjorn left, unsatisfied with having his actions called into question. Skjor was training with Aela, who was simply the best archer since her mother had been alive. Imagining the old dog learning a new trick from a feisty whelp like Aela was a funny thought and Farkas chuckled as he split logs.

All the other new bloods had made themselves scarce knowing they weren't being watched as well today. Kodlak had, in Skjor's absence, asked Vilkas to help him decipher more information from that leather bound journal they'd found on the woman they'd killed.

Farkas kept chopping until he realized he'd made such a pile that it would fall over if Tilma tried to take any firewood. He stopped to stack it neatly and when his brother approached him in a failed attempt at stealth.

"Why are you crouched behind the wood, Vil?"

"Ssshhh!" his twin hissed. "Finish whatever you're doing and follow me."

Farkas was baffled at his brother's truly uncharacteristic behavior. Perhaps there was a girl involved? Either way, this seemed like a rare opportunity to catch Vilkas make an ass out of himself, so Farkas dropped his axe and followed obediently. Vilkas made for the Bannered Mare, sneaking behind buildings and avoiding the public paths. Whatever this was had to be important. Finally they came to a stop behind the inn, where no one usually went.

"So why are we hiding?" Farkas asked in a low whisper.

Vilkas looked around nervously, and then leaned in close to his brother.

"I think we should skip the ceremony tonight. I overheard Kodlak and Skjor talking about a blood ritual," he said with a shudder.

"What! How could they? I thought we would be safe from magic here," Farkas complained bitterly.

No wonder Vilkas was so upset. They'd spent a year of their young lives exposed to and being forced to partake in blood magic, as prisoners and unwilling assistants. Kodlak knew this more than anyone left at Jorrvaskr, and still he wanted to open a wound in this way? Farkas couldn't remember ever feeling so betrayed. It was too unreal. In fact, maybe it wasn't real…

Vilkas wrinkled his nose in distaste before adding, "Aela's name was mentioned too. She'll probably be involved in this mess tonight as well."

"She would know what happens. Her mother was in the Circle up until she died. Surely Aela would have overheard something in her lifetime."

"Maybe you should ask her what she knows. She doesn't seem at all bothered," replied Vilkas.

Farkas agreed, and grinned happily at the prospect of talking to Aela. She picked on him, but it was all in good fun, and when it counted, she was very nice. She was a great huntress too, and very helpful with learning the bow. He couldn't catch on, but she helped newer recruits all the time. At least, she was helpful when she wasn't taking jobs with Skjor. Skjor seemed to have taken to the younger redheaded girl instantly. They shared a common love of hunting and the pair brought in the bulk of the meat for Jorrvaskr. Farkas was aware of a slight rivalry between his twin and the girl, but those kinds of things were bound to happen between two such overachievers. Farkas took his leave to find the woman and question her.


It seemed Aela knew something, but her lips were sealed. Farkas knew his wits were no match for the woman's, and cracking her would be next to impossible. He'd have to return to Vilkas and disappoint his brother. First though, he'd eat dinner. The sun was starting to meet the horizon, so he should have enough time for a meal before he was to meet his fate.

Farkas pushed his straggly dark hair back out of his face and entered Jorrvaskr. The smell of roasted goat meat met his nostrils and started his stomach to rumbling. He saw his twin sitting alone at one end of the table, staring sullenly at Skjor and Kodlak at the other end. The two didn't notice Vilkas' sharp glare. Farkas plopped down into the seat beside his brother and immediately began filling the empty plate from the platters in the middle of the table.

Vilkas kicked his brother under the table.

"Ow. What in Oblivion was that for?"

"Did you forget? "

"Forget what?" Asked Farkas between bites of baked potato.

Gods, was his brother ever dense. Vilkas sighed and tried to compose himself before asking again. "Did you get to speak to Aela?"

Farkas nodded and swallowed his food before replying, "Yeah and I think she knows something but she ain't tellin'."

"We need to talk to Kodlak then. We'll tell him we're not doing anything that involves blood magic."

"Hold on now, Vil. Aela may not exactly have been forthcoming with information, but she's not worried. Why should we be?"

Vilkas blinked. Was this possibly the wisest thing Farkas had ever said?

Farkas took a swig of his honeyed mead and continued, "Besides, we may be young, but we're no milk-drinkers. We can't run from the past forever."

Not wanting to admit his brother was right, Vilkas looked down at his plate and began to pick at his food. His normally hearty appetite was gone. He glanced up when he saw Kodlak lead Skjor and Aela out through the back. The sun was well down, he noticed while the door was open. Time was up.


Aela was giddy as she waited in the Underforge. Skjor had told her a week ago that she had earned a place in the Circle for her fierce nature, skills in combat and hunting, and dedication to the Companions. Kodlak though, had insisted the ceremony wait until it could coincide with the twins' as well.

"I'm not so ignorant as to believe your mother never once told you any of what goes on," Kodlak had said.

He was right of course, though Aela never felt it safe to confirm or deny what she knew. Luckily the issue was not pressed, more than for Kodlak to ask her if she felt up to the challenge.

"I am up to any challenge," had been her reply.

Now here she was, underneath the legendary Skyforge with her two elders, waiting for her Shield-brothers so that the ritual could commence. Strange that Farkas had tried to pry what little she knew of what was to come out of her. Snooping for information was usually Vilkas' thing. Perhaps he'd been put up to it.

Skjor brought her out of her thoughts by grasping her hand. "If you've any doubts," he began, "you can tell me. I've no doubt you're brave enough to face anything, but I still don't want you to be alarmed when you see what is to come."

Aela smiled up at him, uncertain if he could even see her face by the faint light that came into the Underforge. "I'm sure I'll handle this like a true Companion."

"That's my girl." Skjor patted Aela kindly and when to the entryway of the Underforge. It seemed he'd heard something she hadn't. He slid the secret stone door out of the way to reveal the twins who were only just arriving from dinner.

"So this is where you disappear to from time to time," Vilkas stated.

"Nice observation, pup. You'll be visiting here too occasionally. If you survive tonight, that is." Skjor said in a half joking manner.

Vilkas scowled, but entered. Farkas followed silently. Skjor led them further in to stand at a strange stone basin in the center of the room.

"I'm glad you finally decided to join us. Now if you three are ready, I am going to show you something that will change your lives," Kodlak said.

He closed his eyes tightly in the moonlight and assumed an air of deep concentration. Before their very eyes, the older man began to sprout a thick dark coat of fur.

"By the divines, what is this?" Vilkas cried in a panic.

Kodlak opened his eyes and their normal color was replaced by a feral yellow glow. He opened his mouth to speak, but what he might have said was garbled as his face began to stretch into a muzzle with pointed teeth. He shrugged off his armor as not to damage it. Just in time, it seemed, because his bone structure began to warp.

Skjor picked up the explaining, since his Harbinger was finding speech difficult in the midst of transformation. "We in the Circle have been blessed by Hircine. We can be as ferocious as wild beasts. This makes us better warriors and hunters."

Kodlak's shape shifting seemed to be complete, and he stood bipedal at the stone basin.

"It is a choice you make now," the werewolf growled. Clearly, speaking in this form was not easy for him.

Vilkas could scarcely reconcile with the fact that his Harbinger, his family, was now in front of him in this beastly form. "Is he going to bite us? Make us one of those?"

The werewolf flashed a pointy toothed grin and made a strange growling sound that mimicked laughter, and Skjor himself chuckled.

"How barbaric! He's not going to bite you," the man said. He pulled out an ornate dagger carved with some kind of totemic markings and crossed to the wolf.

The wolf- no, Kodlak raised his furry forearm and Skjor held him steady over the basin. With a quick motion, he slit the skin and allowed a large quantity of blood to flow into the stone basin. Aela seemed to know what was expected and looked down into the dark blood.

"Are you ready, my dear?" Skjor asked.

She nodded proudly and dipped a hand into the blood and brought it up to her lips.

'My dear?' Vilkas mouthed at her questioningly.

Aela flushed, but kept her concentration on the blood in her palm. She took a breath and let it run into her mouth. Some dribbled down her front, through her fingertips and stained her neck red. It seemed barbaric, and not at all magical. There were no strange words, no pungent herbs. No one was even being killed to provide the blood. Kodlak's arm was already healing.

Farkas and Vilkas cupped their hands and reached into the fount. They didn't like this idea, but it seemed less like a choice and more like a requirement. If they tried to leave, what would happen? Skjor wasn't exactly holding them at knifepoint and forcing them to participate, but there was a look in his good eye that seemed to convey a sense that they would be dishonored if they did not.

Farkas stole a glance at Aela and noticed she was sweating profusely, despite the chill in the air. She began shedding her armor and fanning herself. He looked away to preserve her modesty, because very soon she would be nude. The woman really didn't wear much in the way of clothing. Farkas wrinkled his nose and swallowed a mouthful of his mentor's lifeblood.

Vilkas had already done so himself. Now was not the time to chicken out. No one here would call the twins milk-drinkers.

Suddenly, a strange sensation filled Farkas' body. It felt like all his blood was rushing out of the veins to fill his skin freely. It was so hot. Was he bleeding out? His vision faded at the edges and he couldn't tell if he was breathing. He forced himself to look for his brother. Vilkas was on the floor, naked and writhing in what looked like pain. He shoved his armor off too as it felt constricting, too tight. Even nude, he felt so warm in the night's cold. There was pain, but he didn't feel anything anymore. Was this death?

Then he remembered nothing.