Fate's Games
(A/N: Third and last one up today. The author's note at the bottom will explain my reasons for why I portrayed this particular Black-Briar as I did. Probably the darkest family in the game, and one of the darkest and perverted hinted at back stories.)
You Are a Good Man
He wasn't sure what made him open up to her. He supposed it was because she was so forgetful that she wouldn't remember all he told her anyway. By the next day it would be gone, maybe even within a few minutes it would slip her mind. That didn't matter to him, though, because she listened. She listened without prejudice, and he saw empathy and sadness in her eyes. He saw tears and he saw anger and hatred towards those who had hurt him… and he saw such kindness and tenderness that he didn't know how to react, because for so long he'd forgotten that such a trait even existed in humanity. It didn't matter if she forgot by the next day. At least he would have those moments of respite with her.
He didn't think she remembered, she knew. Why should he believe she would? She was chronically forgetful. She hardly remembered where her own room was, sometimes… But she remembered his every word, and his every confession… She remembered the anguished things he spoke. She remembered him bursting into helpless sobs and her holding him tightly and weeping with him because his past was just so, so painful. His life now was no better. She wanted to kill Maven so badly for everything she had done to him, for everything she was still doing. And she was jealous, very, very jealous; and possessive. Oh yes, there was possessiveness. She may have forgotten everything else, but his words and his laments would never leave her mind. They were etched into her thoughts and memories.
ES
He realized it soon enough, that she was remembering everything he spoke. It was a slip up on her part, and it had betrayed her guise. He was embarrassed, humiliated, and he hated himself for being so blind. He tried to rise and leave her behind. He didn't want to stay there with her. Not anymore. Not in all his shame and accursedness. She deserved better than that. He wasn't worthy of associating with such a woman. But she leapt forward and took his hand and pled on hands and knees for him to stay. She told him she didn't judge him, she told him she wasn't appalled. She told him he wasn't worthless, that he wasn't beyond redemption. She told him… she told him he was a good man… She begged him until he finally relented and obeyed her wishes. From that moment on, things were never quite the same.
They'd known they'd been falling in love for some time now, honestly. In fact, they'd known since the day that he'd fallen into a fit of such misery and depression that he fell upon his knees and wept hopelessly upon hers as she sat. He'd begged for death that day, and begged for her to kill him. He threatened that if she didn't, he would. Wylandriah had cried with him and done everything she could to try and calm and comfort him. He'd never been so grateful to anyone before, and she'd never felt anything like she'd felt in that moment.
She'd thought it was just a type of protectiveness at first; like a sister and brother. Except the love she'd had for him in that moment was not the love a sister should have towards her brother, and she'd seen Hemming with his own siblings. There was just something different about the whole thing that wasn't at all like that kind of relationship.
ES
Her life would be forfeit, she knew, if Maven ever found out. Based on what Hemming had told her about his mother, and what she'd done to him… well, that was best left unsaid. He would sooner die than let Maven find out what was happening between him and the court wizard. If his mother did find out, he would die protecting his Bosmer lover.
He was afraid, she saw. Afraid to let anyone become close to him. Especially when it was a woman. He thought he was unworthy. He thought he was doomed to walk aimlessly in the Void for eternity. There would be no Sovengarde for him, he alleged, and she knew he would consider even a plain of Oblivion to be a blessing. He was cursed to a life that was not a life, to a fate that he did not deserve. Hemming was a good man. Yes he was a Black-Briar, yes he repeated his mother's mistakes, yes he made himself out to be narcissistic, spoiled, and his mother's pet, but he wasn't any of those things. He was his mother's slave… But all he did was for the good of his siblings and for their safety. All he did was for them, never himself. He was a good man who deserved nothing of what Maven had done to him in his life, and Sovengarde should be honored to accept him.
Except, from the stories he'd told, he wouldn't want to be separated from his siblings, neither of which had a chance at entering that place. Well, Ingun perhaps had a shot, but definitely not Sibbi. Not now. And unless the youngest Black-Briar did something drastic, he probably never would. So Hemming would he lost forever, trapped by his mother, his nightmare. Even in death he would not escape her, and he would roam the Void in captivity, sharing the domain with both his mother and the father he'd despised. Ingun would be in Sovengarde, more likely than not, and Sibbi in Oblivion. Hemming would be lost… Oh gods, please, don't leave him to be lost. Divines, show mercy to her lover. Show mercy to him.
ES
She wept silently, kneeling next to the bed he slept upon, her own bed. She gazed upon him miserably. He was trying to avoid returning home to Maven. She would gladly give up her sleep if it gave him such a respite. She kissed his hand softly and laid her head upon his chest, letting her tears fall and wet his clothing and skin. She felt his hand softly go behind her head, stroking her hair gently. She sniffed and looked into his eyes mournfully. "It's too late to save me," he whispered to her. "You know that. There's no use crying over what you cannot hope to prevent."
"Don't say that," she begged.
"Shh… Wylandriah, shh… It's all right. I'm all right. I came to accept it long ago. My siblings are safe, that is all that matters. What happens to me from this point on is water under the bridge," he told her.
"You aren't worthless. You don't deserve this," she replied. He smirked softly at her, and oh gods she never though a Black-Briar could look, could be, so gentle.
"I love you," he whispered quietly. "Never did I think I could ever trust or love anyone again, or that anyone could ever love me. All the wrongs and all the sins I've committed… For everything I am still doing… For the suffering, the fate, that has befallen me; that I am still going through and bending to as though… as though I can't fight back, or won't, or don't want to."
She shook her head. "No… no… You aren't weak, you don't want that life. You're afraid. Afraid for yourself, just like any Black-Briar, but even more so you're afraid for your siblings. I love you, and I won't let the fate of the Void be yours to bear."
"You will have little choice," he stated.
"I will not let you go without a fight," she promised.
"I wouldn't expect you to. And before this is done I will prove to you that I too can fight, that I can take charge of my own life, that I am a man. I am not helpless. For your sake, I won't let myself be," he answered.
(A/N: In Skyrim, Hemming is referred to, along with Sibbi and Ingun, as Maven's child. He's also referred to as their sibling on multiple occasions, backing this statement. However, some of his dialogue suggests that Sibbi and Ingun are his children. He can even be seen sharing a bed with Maven, yet in the Skyrim creation kit he is listed as Maven's child and Ingun and Sibbi's father. Maven is listed as their grandmother, yet she refers to them as her children directly in a conversation with Ingun, and to Sibbi and Hemminig as Ingun's brothers too, I believe. This suggests that Hemming was originally written as Maven's husband but was later changed to her son.
On the wiki it made the observation that Hemming could very well be Ingun and Sibbi's father as well as their brother. When trying to puzzle out what that meant, I realized that it was actually a very plausible scenario. In fact, there was a Law and Order CI episode that followed that same plot, when one character's brother was discovered to have also been his father. Maven, whom I hate and as far as I'm concerned is just twisted enough to do something like that, could very well have committed this unspeakable crime regarding her eldest son. Presuming her husband died early on leaving her with only one child, which would be a risky endeavor in the Skyrim world seeing as life is so short and Maven would want more than one heir just in case, she could have used her son to her advantage, making herself both Sibbi and Ingun's grandmother as well as their mother. It makes for a far deeper side to the Black-Briar family than is on the surface. Can't help but thing Bethesda realized it as well.)