" 'Gentlemen,' he said,

'I don't need your organization, I've shined your shoes,

I've moved your mountains and marked your cards

But Eden is burning, either brace yourself for elimination

Or else your hearts must have the courage for the changing of the guards.' "

Bob Dylan - Changing of the Guards

Brynjolf had lost track of the time that they had spent in Nightingale Hall, it could have been an hour, a day, a lifetime, and he was surprised to see the gold-rose of dawn still glowing in the eastern sky as the ancient door clanged shut behind them.

"Lady of Dawn who closes the door for her dark sister, into your hands, Azura, we give this day," Karliah murmured. It had a sound of ritual to it but he made no comment. There was far too much else to think about.

Mena jerked her head in the direction of Riften's walls. "Back to the guild?"

"Back to the guild," Brynjolf agreed. "But before that, lass, you're going to answer one question. Fully, without evasion, without lies. Deal?"

She looked at him with a half smile. "And what is the question?"

"Lass, just who the hell are you?"

That got a soft laugh from Karliah as Mena sighed. "I suspect the answer is going to be quite a long story. Can we keep walking while you tell us?"

Mena nodded jerkily and they picked their way along the overgrown path, with her quiet voice a counterpoint to the rustling of dead leaves beneath their feet.

"I am Philomena, a Windlady of the House of the South Wind which is no more, daughter of the Windlady Jazaala who was known to you as Raven, and of Gallus, once Master of the Thieves Guild of Skyrim, granddaughter to Fassith, last South Wind King of the city of Taneth and its lands. I am an exile from my homeland of Hammerfell for five years now. I can never return."

Her voice had taken on the almost musical chant that Brynjolf remembered from the night of story telling, though there was no drum beat now to echo her tale, only their footsteps setting their own beat.

"I am a Black Talon of the Thieves Guild of Hegathe, given that rank after the five years that I trained with them when my city fell and I was smuggled out of its ashes. I am not Dark Brotherhood, but I lived with the Brotherhood for over a year when I was fourteen, and received some of their training."

A raven flew up from the bushes ahead of them, crying its rough call to the wind and Mena paused for a second to let it pass, her grey eyes watching it fly until it was no more than a speck in the brightening eastern sky.

"When my city fell, and my grandparents and their only legitimate son burned on the pyres of the enemy invader, the direct line of the House of the South Wind which had ruled that city for nine generations was ended. With the liberation of Hammerfell the city passed to the House of the East Wind, an old and noble line, but the transition was not without turmoil. The current king and queen of Taneth who have ruled that city now for ten years are good and kind and wise, and have governed the people well. But they live under a shadow that can never be shaken off, because they are blood kin to the traitress Iman who betrayed the city to the Aldmeri Dominion, and for that reason many do not want them as rulers. The title of Windlord or Windlady is carried by an illegitimate child of one of the Great Houses, and we are barred from the succession, but even now if it were known that I lived, there would be those attempting to put me forward as a pretender to a throne I have no right to, simply because of who my grandparents were. That alone would be reason enough to flee Hammerfell. Taneth has suffered enough, without being torn apart in a hopeless civil war that sets her people against each other. But it is not the only reason."

She paused for so long that Brynjolf thought for a minute that the story was ended. Just as he was about to prompt her, she began speaking again in a tone so soft that both he and Karliah drew closer to her to hear what she was saying.

"The Thalmor sought me after my escape from Taneth, even now they would like very much to know where I am and how I did what I did. But one little half-blood Redguard in Skyrim is much like another, there are many of my people here and they married men and women of this land and bore children that mingled the blood of the desert and the snow. For a long time my greatest protection was that the Thalmor thought me dead - and they believed me to be a boy. But for many reasons they now know both those assumptions to be false."

"Are you sure of that, lass?"

"No. But Kematu has been my eyes and ears in the last years, and he has brought back word that Thalmor agents in Hammerfell are now hunting for a woman, not a man. Apparently someone in the Summerset Isles unearthed the old Gold Dragon prophecy, and for reasons of their own they consider it applies to me."

This clearly meant something to Karliah. "I've heard of it, people talked about it when the dragons started reappearing. But what exactly is the prophecy, and why do they think it applies to you, Mena?"

Mena took a deep breath. "Thus spoke the Bosmer seer Dagail of the Leyawiin Mages Guild in the days of Martin Septim."

"Out of the flames of war and the ashes of hope

a gold dragon rises out of the desert on the South Wind

born of two bloods, claimed by two lands

three times shall she be both saviour and sacrifice

the first time to lose a home and save a homeland

the second to relinquish a throne and save a kingdom

the third to give up a future to save all futures"

Brynjolf's mouth hung open. "And they think you're this "gold dragon", lass?"

"Well obviously not literally. But at least some of them apparently do identify me with the prophecy. But what they think they'd achieve by my capture and probable execution, the Dark Lady only knows. Other than revenge which is never to be underestimated as a reason for anything."

They became silent as they passed Riften's gate guards and slipped through the gate to the graveyard. As they approached the mausoleum that hid the entrance to the Guild, they could see that Delvin was sitting there waiting for them.

"So you managed it then."

"Del, how long have you been waiting?"

"Since we got our visitor."

"What visitor?"

Delvin stood up and pushed aside the cover to the passageway. "I think you'd better come and see for yourselves.

As they climbed down the ladder, they could hear the cheering starting. Brynjolf, last to enter, turned around to see every active member of the Guild standing in a semicircle in the Cistern, clapping and cheering. Mena was being hugged by Tonilia, Vekel of all people had picked up Karliah and spun her around in a circle, laughing. Then Brynjolf had all the breath knocked out of him as Vex embraced him fiercely. He held her for a minute, then looked across to Delvin. "This looks like a party. Just how did you all know what was happening?"

Delvin was grinning. "The Dark Lady paid us a visit, boss. Less than an hour ago."

Karliah looked stunned. "She did what?"

Vex took up the tale. "It was about half an hour before dawn. Most people were still asleep. But asleep or awake, dream or vision, we all saw the same thing. A woman robed in black from head to foot, her face hidden by a deep cowl, walked through here bearing something in her hands covered in a cloth. Even those of us were awake could do or say nothing, it was like one of those dreams where you cannot move or speak. She set her burden down over there, in the alcove and then walked back to the door. We couldn't see her face and yet we knew she was smiling. She turned once to look at all of us - and then she vanished. Like a ghost. But what she brought was no vision. Go and look."

Brynjolf pushed through the crowd. Mena was ahead of him. Without turning round he could feel Karliah at his back. The three of them gazed without speaking. Standing in the alcove was a statue of the Daedric Lord Nocturnal, carved in black stone with the nightingales on her hands and left shoulder. It stood on a stone block and was flanked by two more blocks bearing lanterns, each of the blocks carved with the Nightingale symbol. Someone had already laid a small bunch of flowers in front of it.

Delvin spoke over his left shoulder. "The Lady's come home to us, Bryn."

He turned and nodded. "She has. I need to talk to you and to Vex. Karliah, can you and Mena be at Riften's gate in an hour with horses?"

Karlian nodded. "We'll be there."

He touched Mena's cheek gently. "Go and see Herluin, lass, and let him check that wound before we ride. I won't be long."

Mena nodded and slipped away. He drew Vex and Delvin to one side and glanced around to make sure nobody else was in earshot.

"Mena, Karliah and I are going after Mercer. At least now, going with the Lady's blessing we may have some chance of finishing this. Until we return, you two are going to hold things together here, as you always have. But we need to talk about more than that."

Delvin perched on the edge of a nearby barrel. "Go on."

He sighed. "Now. Like it or not, at least for the moment I seem to have ended up as Guildmaster. And I can tell you that I don't like it in the least. You both know that I never wanted the job, and I don't consider myself up to it. But there isn't much choice at the moment."

Vex gave a wry smile. "The fact that you don't want the job, Bryn, might be the best recommendation for giving it to you. We've already seen what happens when someone does want the job..."

"True. Mercer's going to be the bad example that we're telling the young thieves about to scare them for thirty years to come. But Mercer can't take all the blame. We were blind. We were all so afraid in the wake of the Ratway Wars that we would have followed anyone who seemed to know what they were doing. That isn't good enough. If we'd really been keeping an eye on how things were here, instead of cursing the failing luck and trusting that Mercer had it all in hand, we would never have ended up as we did. We all destroyed the Guild, and now it's going to take all of us to rebuild it."

Delvin looked thoughful. "Go on."

"I was thinking on the way to Nightingale Hall tonight that a trinity is strong for more reasons than some magical necessity. A triangle is a strong shape, and three voices are a strong agreement. Or disagreement. What I want to do is this - if the two of you agree. I'll take the role of Guildmaster - provisionally for now, with both of you as Guildseconds. Any major decision will be made by the three of us, not just me alone. If the three of us can't agree, then I get the casting vote. But if the two of you ever are in agreement that my decision is wrong, then the two of you outvote me. We cannot have this place standing or falling on my word - or the word of any one man or woman in the future."

Both of them were nodding. "It should work, boss." Delvin said. "But are you sure you want us as seconds? I was expecting you to want Karliah or Mena as a second."

"It wouldn't work, Del, even if they agreed to it - and they wouldn't agree. Karliah, despite being proved innocent of the murder that we all believed she had done is still not liked or trusted by people here, and they wouldn't follow her. Mena in time would make a Guildsecond, or even a Guildmaster, but not yet. Not for years yet. Not because she's not a good Thief - Del, you've said yourself that she's one of the best damned thieves in the place. But because she needs the time. Time to grow, time to heal - and I don't mean from the knife wound that Mercer put in her back. We haven't been able to give her much else. But we can give her the time."

Vex idly tossed her knife in her hand. "So you go after Mercer today?"

"Yes. He's ahead of us already, our only chance is to get to him while he is still in Irkngthand. Four days hard riding should get us there - I'm hoping that because he doesn't know that we know where he's going, that we have a chance of catching him still."

Delvin offered a hand. "Shadow hide you then, and good hunting, Bryn."

He took Delvin's hand in a firm grasp, felt Vex take his other hand and for a moment they stood joined together, a second and earthly trinity to counterbalance the unearthly triumvirate of the Nightingales.

When he glanced at the statue, he was sure that Nocturnal was smiling.

Author's note - I took some licence with the timing of the appearence of Nocturnal's shrine in the Guild - in game it doesn't appear until after the Key is returned to the Twilight Sepulchre. I chose for reasons of plotline to have it appear a little earlier :)