A/N: Another favorite. I really like this one, like, lots. *nodnod*

...

Day 10: How does their family feel about them?

"Just look at him, at all he's done. He's truly grown into a fine young man," cooed a soft voice, transparent scarlet eyes brimming with pride.

Beside her stood another diaphanous figure, with a voice like ashes. "He had no business marrying that n'wah. It's a disgr—"

"Oh, shut up, Maeonius, the boy's in love. Let him be."

The Ashlander bristled but fell silent under the gaze of his wife. Across the shadowy plane another woman spoke, her voice flat and unimpressed, "Why did he not marry a woman?"

"Does it matter, Ahanabi?" answered a fourth. His skin was pale like snow and his eyes shone a bright, clear blue. "He is in love, as Raishi said. There is nothing to be done about it n—"

"I did not ask for your input, Falmer."

It was the Snow Elf's turn to bristle. "You know I am not to be compared with the Betrayed. I am just as much a part of the boy's lineage as you."

Ahanabi turned her nose up. "I never said a word to compare you to those blind monstrosities."

"You implied it. I may not be dunmer, but I am not stupid."

Beside the woman another, with a long scar crossing his face, scoffed. "And yet you allowed your entire race to wither in the face of the Nords."

"Excuse me? I don't see the dark elves claiming territory across Tamriel. You cower in the face of the Nords, and worse, the Altmer."

Thus began the war.

The entire plane rose in an uproar, every dunmer getting to his or her feet to raise an argument against their white-skinned counterpart. It may have come to blows, had an elder not stood on his feet.

"Silence, all of you!" he rasped, thudding the butt of his cane loudly against the floor. His skin was golden brown, a lighter color than that of the Redguards, and his eyes burned orange, even in the afterlife. "You shame yourselves with this bickering."

Many shut their mouths and bowed their heads in respect for the last Chimer in their line, and more still looked his way; surely he was ready to speak now that he was standing.

So on Voryn went, "We gathered here to grant Dalamus the blessing he deserves, not to argue. What say you all?"

"Aye," almost everyone in the hall rang at once, no one able to deny the young dunmer what he'd certainly earned. The only exception was a dark shape sitting on the ground, far from the rest. Even after twelve years his crimson eyes were dark, hollow.

"Well? What say you, Helseth?"

When the dark one spoke his voice was just as abrasive as any of the Ashlanders', but he was not one of them. "Dalamus has grown to be a warrior, a hero, a greater father than I ever was to him. I see no reason why you require my help to grant his blessing."

"Because you are his father, a good one or not," Voryn had opened his mouth to answer, but Mastrius – Helseth's father – beat him to it. "He needs you for this just as he needed you the day you were taken to the chopping block."

Helseth flinched and heaved a sigh, averting his eyes from his ancestors as he stood. "Very well, let the blessing begin."

…

Marcurio was pulled out of his slumber when something ticked his nose. He frowned and rubbed at his face, but the second he put his arm back around Dal another had replaced it. He grumbled and forced his eyes open, wiping his face and waving the open air to clear it. But when his vision cleared there were lights rising out of his husband's skin, shining in shades of blue and purple with the occasional white or orange.

At first his tired brain wondered what was going on, but as he watched the lights surround his sleeping husband he recognized a blessing when he saw it. Concerns abated, he pulled the dunmer closer and buried his face in white hair, shielding his nose from the itchy little lights, and returned to sleep.