In the end, after hearing from Talsgar what conditions were currently like in the Reach, it was decided that Ysmir herself would go, along with the twins, to ensure the bard's safe arrival at Sky Haven Temple. The Dragonborn was reluctant, but Talsgar pointed out that it might be easier to convince Esbern to talk to her if she were relatively close by.

"I hate to be leaving them so soon," she fretted, gazing back over Jughead's rump at the house dwindling in the distance. A few tiny figures could just barely be made out watching from the nearer tower. One of them was Darva, the other was either Sofie or Lucia, judging from size.

"They'll be fine," Farkas assured her with a grin. "Lydia and Inigo are with them."

"Not to mention Aela should return from her mission within the week," Vilkas put in, gazing around alertly. "She always stops in around the little one's birthdays."

"Ysmir," Talsgar put in musingly after a few more moments of her watching the house disappear to distance and woods, "I was wondering…how did you end up with so many children? They cannot all be yours."

The twins snickered. "Ysmir has a habit of taking in strays," Farkas told the bard. "It doesn't matter what they are."

"Ah, I remember that," the older man replied, scratching the stubble appearing on his chin. "The first time I met her she was being followed around by a wild dog."

"Meeko," Ysmir supplied. "He wasn't wild, his owner had just died. I left him with Haming and his grandfather. The boy needed a friend and I just couldn't care for him at the time."

"Lucia was an orphan in Whiterun," Vil picked up the tale as if Ysmir hadn't spoken, eyes still scanning the hillsides. "Her aunt and uncle took over her dead mother's farm and tossed her out to beg on the streets. Ysmir saw her once, paid for her to stay in the inn for a week, and returned to say she had a room all set up for her in her house."

Ysmir shrugged. "What did I need with a room that big, anyway?"

"Then she solved a murder in Windhelm," Farkas continued, "and while she was there she heard of Aventus living all alone in his dead parent's house—"

"—doing nothing out of the ordinary whatsoever—"

"—and marched in there, threw him over her shoulder, and took him home!" Farkas crowed.

"I did no such thing!" Ysmir snapped, then grinned. "I merely took some time to convince him things wouldn't be so bad at the orphanage if he gave it another shot." That she had made things better at the orphanage was beyond the point.

"Of course," Vil said blandly, eyes shining as he shot her an amused look, "the first time she visited him at the orphanage, she ended up taking him home. Runa met her at the door with her bags packed and said in no uncertain terms that she did not want to stay in the orphanage a moment longer, and that she'd hire herself out as Ysmir's serving maid if she had to."

"Of course, this was seven years ago, so that was just adorable," Farkas gushed in an imitation of one of the girls when they've seen something cute. Ysmir kicked at him and he ducked.

Ysmir gave both of them a quelling glare. "You aren't even telling it right," she admonished them. "All right. First was Lucia, which you heard. Only a few months after that were the murders in Windhelm, where I heard the rumors about Aventus, and within three months he and Runa were living with me. Then I met Alesan in Dawnstar while on the way to Solitude, and basically just packed him up to come with me. We passed by a stable where Blaise was working as a stable-boy, and the two began playing. Once I learned about him, I couldn't just leave him. A little less than a year later, we were attacked by cultists from the island of Solstheim, and I headed out to Raven Rock to start to investigate. Sofie was selling flowers by the entrance to the docks from Windhelm. Her father died in the war. I couldn't get her out of my mind when I was in Raven Rock, and so when I returned I took her home with me." That about summed it up, but Talsgar was looking at her with disappointed disbelief for her lack of storytelling skills.

"And when she got home," Farkas said with a laugh, "Lydia begged her no more! Even with Vil and I coming out to help, and Inigo assisting, it was too much to handle without Ysmir there."

"So I agreed not to bring home any more children—"

"—only to find out she was pregnant!" Farkas finished, laughing.

"But all the children really put effort into being good after Darva was born," Ysmir said, ignoring the penetrating look Vilkas was giving her, as if he had just realized something. "They all grew up a little, when they got a baby sister."

"But of course now they're all bringing home pets," Farkas chuckled, and regaled Talsgar with all the strange things that had been in the house over the years, from Precious the cranky ice wolf to a mudcrab named Butter that had disappeared into the lake.

"Ysmir," Vil said quietly from her stirrup under his brother's chatter, and she glanced down in surprise. His black-ringed eyes were gazing at her keenly, "Darva's father…is he from Raven Rock?"

"No," she replied, looking forward. It wasn't a lie, either. She doubted Raven Rock had been established when Miraak was walking about.

The werewolf scowled, "But he's from the island?" he persisted.

She sighed, "He was…I met him while on the island, yes. I can't say if that's truly where he was from." For one thing, the island hadn't existed until Miraak opposed the dragon rule.

"Why don't you want to talk about this?" he asked.

"Why do you? I messed up and wound up pregnant—not that I regret it. That's all there is to it," as far as he was concerned, anyway.

"You don't…" Vil broke off, heaving a sigh in exasperation that let her know she'd won, for the moment.

Thankfully, by the end of the day they were at the borders of the Reach, and between Foresworn and frostbite spiders, they had their hands full. It took the better part of a week to reach their camp spot, chosen carefully near but not-too-near Sky Haven Temple. Talsgar set out just after dinner on Jughead so that he would reach the temple only a little after dark, as if he were lost and had seen the lights.

Of course, as soon as he was gone, Vilkas descended.

Farkas headed out to get firewood after a tense conversation Ysmir pretended not to notice as she rolled out sleeping rolls. When Talsgar was with them, they slept in separate ones, but now she simply piled them into one big one—it was much warmer that way, and she wasn't a cold-resistant Nord like the twins were. Since it looked like it might rain, she hooked the top of the tent cloth over a low pine branch, staking down the corners. She was inside fixing the back top corner when he snuck up behind her.

He trapped her between his chest and the tree, hands roving with a purpose that took her a bit off-guard coming from Vilkas. She responded immediately, trying to turn, but he shoved her back against the tree roughly, growling under his breath. What little she could see proved his eyes were glowing. Ysmir gasped, a little excited despite the slight sense of outrage she felt. The werewolf didn't bother fully undressing her, simply removing what needed to be moved before spinning her around and taking her against the tree, his hands and lips rougher and more possessive than she could ever remember them being before. She clung to him, legs wrapped tightly around his waist as she gasped, nails digging into his back.

Abruptly he slowed, lifting his glowing eyes to meet hers. "Who is he?" he asked, thrusting once, hard, to the question.

"What?" she managed, dazed.

"Darva's father. Who. Is. He?"

She groaned, feeling as if he were torturing her. "Really, Vilkas? Now?"

He stopped, holding her captured, unfulfilled and unable to move against the rough tree bark. "Who is it, Ysmir?" he demanded.

"Why does it matter to you?" she challenged, beginning to get angry.

"Because it matters to you," he yelled, surprising her again. Vil usually had a better reign on his temper. "I can see it in your eyes."

"Let it go, Vil," she pleaded, resting her head against the tree and gazing up into the branches. It had begun to rain, and drops had been falling on her for some time. She hadn't noticed until this point.

Vil took a step back, drawing out of her and letting her down, still gazing at her with that angry granite mask. Curtly, he turned and walked out of the tent and into the woods. There was a moment of silence, then a heart-stopping howl rent the air, nearly drowned out by a peal of thunder. She hoped the Blades couldn't hear that, or they would come looking.

Ysmir sank down on the sleeping rolls, aroused, bereft, and no little bit angry. She didn't want to think about Miraak. There was no place in her life, in her children's life, for the new Daedra, so why did it matter? And…she didn't want them to know. She didn't want to talk about it, to admit to it, to admit that…

She sighed with frustration, falling back on the furs and concentrating on being annoyed at her lover.

"I thought he might have left you like this," Farkas commented, joining her. She glanced at him, letting him see her irritation, and he smiled, hand stroking her thigh very gently. Ysmir was so hyped up she mewed involuntarily. "Don't worry," he said, pulling her gently to him—despite everything, Farkas was always gentle—"I won't leave you like that…"

Vilkas returned sometime in the night, for Ysmir woke to find him in his usual spot, tucked in beside her, opposite his brother. The pair of them were both cover hogs, which resulted, ironically enough, in perfect coverage as they each tugged on opposite sides of a blanket. His chest was against her back, leg between hers, while Farkas had a leg thrown over both of them, and an arm around her shoulder. Ysmir snuggled deeper under the covers and went back to sleep.

He was gone at breakfast.

"He has a lot to think on right now," Farkas told her when she expressed her irritation, shoveling horker stew left over from the night before in his mouth. "And he doesn't like it when people keep secrets."

"Well, sometimes 'people' just don't want to talk about some things," Ysmir groused, running a hand through her hair. One of the girls had apparently "borrowed" her brush from her travel pack, so she had no other way of combing it, which added to her irritation. She wondered briefly if she should start wearing it short again.

"He hasn't told you yet, has he?" the Companion asked abruptly, watching her for a long moment.

She glanced at him, taken aback, "Told me what?"

"Before that last mission with all the bandits, Kodlak had a meeting with him. Seems the old man is thinking of setting Vil up to be the next Harbinger."

Ysmir stared at him, coming to sit slowly beside him. "But that's wonderful. I know it's something he wants, so why is he acting so, so…"

"He won't be around as much, Ysmir," Farkas pointed out with a shrug. "He loves those children, and you in his own way, and even Lydia and Inigo and the kitten. He'll have to spend most of his time in Jorrvaskr, and leave you all behind."

Ysmir softened, glancing off in the direction Vil had gone the night before. "What does this have to do with Darva's father?"

"Don't you see? If you decide that you truly do care for this man—one you've had a child with, and marriage has been based on less in Skyrim—he won't have any claim on them whatsoever. If this man doesn't like Vil, or want him around, there is nothing he can do about it. What I really think, Ysmir, is that Vil is scared of losing you and the children. He'd probably put on an Amulet of Mara for you himself if he thought it would really help rather than sending you running in the other direction."

Ysmir felt her mouth drop open and closed it with a snap. "I would never deny Vil—or you—access to the children. They love you. Even if I—for some unfathomable reason—decided to marry, it wouldn't be to someone who couldn't handle the fact that my children already have two werewolf fathers."

"And a dragon grandfather, and another dragon uncle," Farkas continued with a smile, but Ysmir could tell she had put him at ease. He rose, carrying his bowl and spoon toward the little rivulet of water, too small to be called a stream, that they had camped beside.

"Farkas…" he paused, glancing back at her with a neutral expression, "I…" she hesitated, then took a deep breath. "I promise, I will eventually tell you two who Darva's father is, but for right now? Let's just enjoy what we have."

"Sounds like a plan," the Companion replied with a smile.