I do not own Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim. The only things that I do own are my own characters, and the storylines that I place them, and characters from the original game, into. TES V has served as inspiration.

Reviewer Responses:

Guest: Another death is indeed on its way. No one is safe when I'm writing them, me, the Queen of Angst.

Here we are at the prologue of the third and final addition to A Story's Conclusion, The End.

That doesn't sound ominous at all.
Let's jump right into it.

The End: Prologue

A lone figure stood in the grove of trees just outside of Riften's walls, glancing around. They were meant to be meeting someone, but that someone had yet to show up, and the figure was beginning to wonder whether or not she would.

As time passed, the figure heard the sounds of animals moving through the underbrush in the surrounding trees, as well as night birds hooting and chirping from within the leaves. The sounds of late night were disturbing, alone in the woods, and the figure bundled their cloak tighter around their shoulders.

There was the sound of footfalls, and the figure stiffened. They turned around to face whoever it was that was approaching them, and their heart dropped into their stomach when they saw that it wasn't who it was supposed to be.

"I knew it," Aela said, moving into the clearing, scowling. "I knew I recognized your scent, the first time I came across your little group of murderers." She bared her teeth. "Traitor. I should kill you right here."

The figure pushed their hood down off of their head, and faced Aela, hopefully appearing more calm than she actually felt.

"I knew you'd figure it out, eventually," Ria said, eyeing Aela as she moved closer. "Where's Ziris?"

"Dead, as you should be," Aela answered, her eyes narrowed. "Not my work, unfortunately. I wish it had been." Her fingers twitched, wanting to grab her bow and an arrow, and fire it directly into Ria's heart. "Why? Why did you decide to do this?"

"Why?" Ria let out a humorless laugh. "You must be kidding, Aela."

"I'm not," Aela stated firmly. "I want to know what's possessed you to make you decide that Cry deserves to die, when she doesn't."

Ria released a breath. "She deserves it," she said, slowly. "You would realize it, too, if you would stop romanticizing her, just like practically everyone else."

"Romanticizing? Are you kidding me? She saved the world. She's our Harbinger."

"Exactly!" Ria practically shouted. "She did this! She's all this! Who cares? She not anymore special than you, or than me. She's just a human, same as everyone else. It doesn't matter what she did, because she did it, and now it's over!" She shook her head. "At least, it should be, but is it? No, it's not, because everyone just keeps talking about it, and I'm sick of it! Ziris was sick of it too."

"Whose idea was it?" Aela demanded. "Yours, or hers? And I'd consider your answer very carefully, because it could be that your life depends on it."

"You know what? Go ahead and kill me." Ria held out her arms. "I know you won't actually do it, because you wouldn't do anything without the permission of your precious Harbinger first." She glared at Aela. "It was my idea. I wanted her dead, and when I ran into Ziris while on a job in Riften, I found out that she hated Cry just as much as I do. We were the perfect team, just enough hate and intelligence between us."

"You're disgusting," Aela said, wrinkling her nose.

"Am I?" Ria laughed dryly. "Originally, we thought we had the perfect weapon, too. Nazir seemed like the right person we needed to kill her, without asking any questions. We didn't take into account the fact that he's in love, though, and that the person's he's in love with loves Cry. Obviously, that affection put a crack in our plans, and we had to come up with something different."

"I don't want to hear this," Aela told her, reaching for her bow. "I want you to leave. Leave Skyrim, and never come back, and maybe, if you're lucky, I won't come after you."

Ria ignored her. "We decided that people who don't know Cry, who hold no allegiance to her, would be better able to kill her, and we were right." She rolled her eyes. "At least, they did better than Nazir by making sure her spawn didn't enter the world. At least we gained some satisfaction from that."

"How did you even know about the babe?" Aela asked. "Vilkas and Cry had no idea."

"That doesn't surprise me; they can be so obtuse." Ria rolled her eyes. "It wasn't hard to tell, based on the signs. Cry was vomiting, and her appetite had changed… a short chat with Danica Pure-Spring gave me all the information I needed. I think Danica thought I was the one carrying a baby."

"You planned it that way, then? For the arrow to hit Cry and kill the babe?"

"No, we were hoping it'd kill her, too, of course," Ria responded. "The loss of the babe was just a bonus. After the babe died, and Cry suffered from it, though… that was fun to hear about from Ziris."

"How did Ziris know? Brynjolf couldn't have told her; he left Windhelm before anyone found out about it." Aela frowned to herself. "Was there someone else? Someone telling her things, so that she could relay it back to you and whoever else you were conspiring with?"

Ria offered her a thin smile. "We hear plenty of things from little birds all over Skyrim, just like you. Let's just say that having a wealthy Guild Master as part of the group meant there was always a steady flow of money that could be handed over to any available guard who was looking to share information for the right price."

"So you bribed them, then."

"Of course," Ria said with a shrug of her shoulders. "Almost anyone will spy on people for money."

Aela gazed at her for a moment. "What do you plan on doing next?"

"Well, now that Ziris is dead, I have two options," Ria commented, almost to herself. She started to pace. "I could find someone else, and continue this plan of mine, or I could not, and just go back to living the way I was, silently hating Cry a little more everyday and imagining every possible death scenario I can think of with her at the center." She paused and glanced at Aela. "What do you think?"

"I think your third option would work best: you leave Skyrim, never come back, and I won't kill you," the huntress answered calmly, more calmly than she'd thought she would.

Ria grinned, one that showed her canines in an almost feral way. "Interestingly enough, I don't like the sound of that plan," she said.

"Oh, that's no good," Aela said. She readied an arrow in her bow's string. "Because that just leaves your fourth and final option."

"Which is?"

"I kill you here and now, and tell Cry and Vilkas and the rest of them that you went off on a job and never came back." Aela shrugged her own shoulders. "That's where you're supposed to be, anyhow, off on a job." She pulled the arrow back and took aim, right between Ria's eyes. "I sort of like that choice the best."

Ria seemed to understand that there was only one way she was getting out of this alive. She swallowed, and casually crossed her arms.

"Let's say I do leave Skyrim," she said. "What would you tell them, then?"

"I'd tell them the same thing I'd tell them if I were to kill you; that you were on a job, and that you just never came back," Aela replied. She narrowed her eyes. "Of course, if you were to come back, I'd know. And I'd find you. And I'd kill you."

Ria frowned at her. "They'll know it was me, then," she said. "That I was the conspirator within the Companions. No doubt Nazir's told them that much, at least."

"Of course he has," Aela said. "That's the only reason I'm here right now." She drew her string back further. "You have three seconds to make your choice."

Ria took a step backwards. "You won't come after me?"

"Not if you stay away."

Ria nodded. "All right," she said, slowly. "I'll go. I'll leave Skyrim, and I won't come back." She narrowed her eyes. "I just want to say one thing, however."

"If it's something about how I'm an idiot for being loyal, I don't want to hear it," Aela replied, her voice a low growl.

Ria was silent for a moment, and then she raised and lowered her shoulders. "You're very intuitive, Aela," she said, "and such a good dog." She pulled up the hood on her cloak and disappeared into the trees.

Aela waited until she could no longer hear or smell Ria before lowering her bow. She glanced around the clearing for a moment, and then let out a sigh and put her bow over the quiver of arrows on her back.

She should've killed her. She knew that, and yet she hadn't, because, at one point, Ria had been a whelp in the Companions, and she'd also been a Companion, a shield-sister. Aela didn't know when her loyalties had dissipated, but at one point, they had existed, and that made it impossible for Aela to kill her.

She cursed her sensitive side before she pushed her way out of the clearing and back towards Riften. She had an assassin to care for.

Yeehaw, that was an abrupt climax to a major mystery. I'm sure a lot of y'all guessed it, though. But maybe not. Who knows?

Let me know, in the reviews!