Dibella was upstairs venting out her anger by punching a pillow when Fastred walked in. Her eyes were dull and blank: her face was deathly pale: she walked slowly towards the bed without any purpose in her movement.

"Are you alright?" Dibella asked, suddenly calming down.

Fastred said nothing as she moved to sit next to Dibella. Instead, she looked down solemnly and opened her clenched fist. Dibella gasped. She was holding a Mark of Dibella.

"Where did you find it?" she asked worriedly.

Fastred didn't move a muscle.

"Aquillius?" Dibella asked slowly.

At this, Fastred burst into tears. Dibella watched her, unsure of what to do. She was ashamed of herself; here was the very Goddess of Love and Beauty sitting next to a heartbroken girl, and she had no idea how to comfort her. She had been away from the Pantheon for too long. Trying to remember her sermons and commandments, Dibella hunched over and tried to block out Fastred's crying.

But suddenly, something crashed into her thoughts. Her mind was filled with a sweet voice that calmed her every nerve: "Dibella! Child, what are you doing? This is no time to be recalling your teachings. Remember where you are, my dear, and who you are with. Be Dianne, not Dibella. Dibella is a being with infinite wisdom and powerful desires, but Dianne is a confused and naïve young girl. Fastred needs Dianne right now more than she needs Dibella. Remember this, child, and you shall succeed. Always remember where you are in every moment. If you learn nothing else, walk away from Nirn with that."

Staring blankly for a moment, Dibella tried to figure out what just happened. But suddenly, she got an impulse to stop thinking and start acting. So, she did what felt natural. She gently placed her hand on Fastred's back and whispered, "It will be all right, Fastred. I promise you. Remember, you don't know the whole story. There could be an infinite number of reasons why that was in his pocket. We don't need to automatically assume the worst."

Fastred sniffled and wiped her nose with her sleeve. "Yeah…Yeah, you're right, Dianne. I shouldn't have jumped to conclusions. Maybe I'll ask him about it later." Silence fell over her face as she tried to accept that there was a better reason Aquillius had obtained a Mark. It was difficult to comprehend, but for the sake of her heart, she had to try.

Dibella felt awful as she watched her. Deep down, she knew Aquillius had been with Vivienne. And Fastred knew it too. Denial wasn't the best thing, but it was all the two girls were relying on at the moment to keep their composure. All Dibella could do was hope that a miracle would happen soon so Fastred would end up happy and faith in the Nine would be restored amongst Solitude.

"Can we go do something fun? Just so I can get my mind off this?" Fastred asked weakly.

Upon hearing her, Dibella grinned wildly. Hopping up from the bed, she shouted, "I'll race you to the lighthouse!"

Fastred's eyes sparkled faintly as she hopped up. "Give me five minutes to change out of this, and then you're on!"

Five minutes later, they were off. Their giggles and stomps echoed along the dark and empty alleys of Solitude as they raced with the wind at their backs. A guard shouted, "Watch it!" as they breezed by him and slammed open the main Solitude gates. Both Fastred and Dibella felt an overwhelming sense of freedom. Fastred was free from the shackles of love, and Dibella was free from worry. They were both at one with Nirn, and with the fresh grass in between their toes, and the silver midnight mist, and the noises from the Hjaalmarch swamp that echoed over the boundaries and into Haafingar.

Dibella loved every second of getting to run through this beautiful world she created. She loved being alive. It was so very different to actually hold a mountain flower in between your thumb and index finger; getting familiar with the touch of such a delicate life form. She found joy in everything. She was even thrilled by the fact that her lungs were burning and calves aching. A goddess never felt physical tiredness or pain. It wasn't the most pleasant feeling, but it was a nice experience. Dibella felt connected to the human body, almost like she understood everything about it. Everything was falling into place, and her only regret was that she had not experienced this world sooner. No amount of her divine magic could compare to the magical feeling of simply being alive.

And finally, in that instant, Dibella understood love.

Love is not something reserved specifically for one person or thing, but for anything. Love is both a mental high and a physical low. A spiritual leap and a mental fall. In short, the beauty of love is that it is indescribable. It is a sensation unlocked when you connect with your surroundings, whether it be with someone or something.

This is what Dibella shouted to Fastred as they reached the lighthouse. Fastred thought about this as she sat on the lush dew-kissed grass. Turning to Dianne she asked, "So if love is indescribable, why is Dibella the goddess of it?"

Dibella pushed her hair back and said, "See, love is such a broad and general concept that it is divided between two goddesses; Mara and Dibella. Mara's sermons deal mainly with love for another person, so marital love. But Dibella deals with love that is much less noncommittal. You know that little flutter you get in your heart when you see someone attractive? That is Dibella's type of love. Or that thrill you get when you run down the mountainside with the soft grass between your toes and the wind filling your lungs? That is Dibella's love as well. But she is also the goddess of beauty and art, which is very fitting, because it ties in with that description of love. Mortals value beauty very much. Why?...Because it causes them to feel this type of love. That little indescribable sensation of lust and desires

Fastred sat silently for a moment, and then slowly nodded her head. "I…yes, I think I understand now."

"And it's very fitting that Dibella manages the simple love." Dibella said with a laugh. "The goddess herself is much like an adolescent. She strives to understand love, but cannot grasp that all of the divine wisdom she possessed will never help her be able to describe it. She's peculiar in that way… very peculiar…"

While Dibella gazed at the stars and lost herself in their twinkling, Fastred's mind was hard at work. After thinking for a good twenty minutes, she stood up and said, "I know what I want to do now, Dianne."

Dibella wasn't really paying attention. She heard Fastred speak, but didn't hear the words. She was too transfixed on the stars. Instead, she just made an inquisitive noise with her throat.

"I want to go home."

Well, Dibella heard that.

"What? Why?

"You've shown me what life is like outside of Ivarstead. Don't get me wrong- Solitude is quite a lovely place and I'm so thankful to have gotten the chance to come here. But the men here are just the same as they are in Ivarstead. Papa was right- I'd be better off just marrying a farmer in town so I can help him on the farm as I grow older."

Dibella opened her mouth to protest, but stopped herself. It would be wrong of her to try and sway the young girl's mind. She would just have to accept that she failed. She failed not only Fastred and herself, but Akatosh and the other divines as well. Oh, she would feel so ashamed going back to the Pantheon as the only divinity who had failed to complete her task.

She realized Fastred was waiting for her reaction. So, she just said, "I understand. When would you like to leave?"

"Two days from now."

The silence was deafening. After many awkward moments, Dibella stammered, "Want to go back to the inn?"

"Sure"

And so they walked, but an eerie silence fell over the two of them. Fastred was deep in thought, thinking about her home, her parents, and Aquillius. Dibella was thinking about her home too, and about Akatosh's displeasure, and even about Amriel. When they reached the Winking Skeever, both girls went straight to bed.

Sorex watched them come in. He yearned to talk to both of them, but when he noticed their sullen expressions he decided it was best to let them be. He made eye contact with Dianne, but her eyes that normally sparked sapphire seemed almost grey. He just figured that she must be very tired, and so he let her continue on her way.

The two girls hardly spoke to each other the next day. Fastred shut herself inside the room, packing her things and gazing at the townspeople from the small window. She only recognized a few of their faces, which was odd to her. Having grown up in Ivarstead, she was used to seeing the same faces performing the same ritual every day. All of these changes around her made her feel both uncomfortable and totally enraptured. But these feelings would not last for long.

She would go home tomorrow. Back to the same routine, the same people, and the same surroundings. She could picture her arrival perfectly; the carriage would stop in Riften and she and Dianne would unload their belongings. Then they would make the long walk to Ivarstead. Go over a bridge, past the creek, hide from dragons, and try not to get killed. Then they would reach town. She would slowly walk to her parents' farm, and the townspeople would whisper as she passed them. They'd say, "There goes that delinquent, Fastred. How could she just up and leave her poor parents? The nerve she has coming back here!"

She would peer in the window of the house. Her mother would be slumped over the table with a dead expression on her face as she ground the wheat and shucked the corn. She'd be hiding a bottle of mead nearby. Mother would always secretly drink when she was troubled. When Fastred was much younger and a cold spell wilted all of their crops, she walked into the house once to find Boti in a disheveled heap on the floor. She reeked of vomit and watched Fastred drunkenly as liquor dripped out of the corners of her mouth. Empty bottles were rolling around Fastred's feet as she gaped at the broken woman that was her mother. When Fastred started to run to fetch Jofthor, Boti leapt up, spitting and screaming that if Fastred ever told anyone about her, she would send her down the river. Fastred complied, only because she was extremely terrified of this monster that had assumed her mother's body. A day later, Boti developed a harsh fever. As Jofthor tended to her and asked her how she had gotten ill, Boti laughed in her innocent voice and said she must have worried too much. Meanwhile, Fastred was tending to the fire in the corner, wishing that she was brave enough to tell the truth to her father. Even though she missed her mother dearly, Fastred still held onto this little bit of resentment. So she decided that upon her return, she would confront her mother about the incident and… no….no, she wouldn't do that. She was forgetting that she had run away. Even though her mother had encouraged her to get out of Ivarstead at some point in her life, Fastred was sure that she would have at least liked a little heads up first.

Her thoughts then went to her father. At first, she worried for him. After the dragon attack, he had been left in rough shape, and she had just up and left him like that. Surely he wasn't well enough to work the farm, which meant more work (and therefore more drinking) for Boti. But if he was well enough, he would surely slap her the moment he saw her. Father always was so cruel to her when she mentioned wanting to leave Ivarstead. When she first mentioned her wanderlust to him, he was shocked, and sent her to bed while he fumed "ABSOLUTELY NOT!" It hurt her to think that Jofthor put his concern about the farm before the care of his daughter.

Now, Fastred was afraid to return. She was afraid that upon her return, her parents would tighten her reins even more. They probably wouldn't even let her go to the river alone anymore. Father would force her to marry Klimmek, and she would spend the rest of her days gathering crops and supplies for the Greybeards while caring for her parents.

Even if Fastred reached the age of two hundred, this was her last day to be alive.