A/N: I know absolutely nothing about Maormer except what's in Skyrim's in-game books. Haven't played online and the one or two playthrough bits I've watched weren't that enlightening. If there's canon out there, I didn't find it (aside from browsing the "Imperial Library") so I'm going to do a lot of guessing. * Bleh. Five re-writes while Wet Dream, I Lobster And Never Flounder, and She's In Love keeps flushing 'round the ole brain coral.

Disclaimer: What's Bethesda's is theirs, etc. Stories might not be in chronological order.

Fishwives

The so-called fishing lodge was an earth house nearly obscured by the snowberry bushes on it. The house was surrounded by a fence of sorts of ropes and posts and reinforced by dense, thorny bushes. A path meandered down to the beach. Two rowboats were upside down in sturdy racks and another rack of held fish fillets and seaweed over a smoking pile of wood.

The door opened and the overwhelming effluvium of rot and piss wafted out.

+—+—+—+—+—+

The Archimage had finally arrived in Whiterun and the Jarls and the Emperor were ready to begin negotiations with the Archimage of Winterhold and the Harbinger of the Companions as neutral witnesses.

Revyn had to return to Windhelm after an unsatisfying quick glimpse of his beloved across the crowded hall of Dragonsreach. Jarl Ulfric's command enforced by a Stormcloak escort.

It was a blow to Ulfric's ego that the Imperials regarded his steward with more trepidation than himself. He had killed the High King and started a civil war. In general Imperial regard, the High King was just another jarl of a distant land. His steward, however, was whispered to have killed an Elder Councilor of the Empire.

The official story was that Sadri, acting as the marriage broker between his Felix cousin and Motierre, in the course of a routine investigation of Motierre's pedigree, had become suspicious of certain activities. He then lured the Elder Councilor Amaund Motierre into a conversation that revealed Motierre's alliance with the Dark Brotherhood to murder the Emperor. He had managed to hide witnesses so that Motierre felt free to make his boasts in front of them. Then realizing his indiscretion, he attacked Sadri. Legate Maro claimed responsibility for the summary execution of the professed traitor before he could kill the dunmer whose help had once again been invaluable in averting peril to Skyrim and to the Empire. The other witnesses, General Tullius, Thane Selrun of The Rift, and Whiterun Housecarl Irileth, backed the story and a Legion scriber provided a verbatim transcript of Sadri and Motierre's conversation.

Jarl Ulfric had read the transcript. He knew that it was far from the whole truth of events. However, getting the truth from Sadri was a luxury he would afford himself later. Sadri had given him information he needed to know now for this Moot to be successful.

Aside from Dragonsreach, the Honningbrew Meadery was the second most important place to be seen and the Felix/Sadri food, drink, and miscellaneous goods stands were raking in the septims. One would think Sadri would be content to sink back into his element of gossip and sales.

But no. He and Thane Selrun began hunting with the Companions for secret, bespelled spies. They were terrorizing the Imperial escort and taking soldiers, officers, servants, and courtiers. Then Sadri went beyond demoralizing the Imperials by pointing out two veterans among the Stormcloaks, a Whiterun soldier, a merchant from Solitude...

Much as it pleased Jarl Ulfric to see the thrice-cursed, sadistic, supercilious bitch Ambassador near incoherent with rage as she tried to deflect accusations away from the Dominion, it was best to send Sadri home. Thane Selrun could handle the spy tracking. Besides, there was an elf problem in Windhelm that only Sadri could handle.

+—+—+—+—+—+

Elani's frown at seeing Jorlief and Stormcloaks walking into her Community Hall office alongside Revyn was adequate expression of her feelings. "There wasn't any need to tell you," she argued to Jorlief. "This wasn't a matter of Windhelm security, it is a family matter. Revyn needed to come home to deal with it and I knew he had to have Jarl Ulfric's permission. I sent word directly to the Jarl because I knew that even if I could convince you that it was urgent, you still might delay for fear of interrupting the Moot."

"And what is the urgent family matter that is so important?" demanded Jorlief.

She rolled her eyes. "If you must know, it's Revyn's brother-in-law, Taliesin. His three mistresses have come looking for him and they're all three powerful and pregnant and pissed off witches. Do you want to know more?"

"Hah. Alright, I can see that would be a delicate situation. But why should Revyn handle this?"

"Because that fool of a bardic wizard is still on the run. So..." She shrugged and smirked at Revyn.

Jorlief snorted and clapped Revyn on the back. "Good luck. Try not to get killed." He left and took the Stormcloaks with him. Revyn shut the office door after them.

"So that's the official story. What did you leave out?" he asked.

"They're maormer and while they're not pregnant they do each have a half-dunmer child. The girls and their families weren't the kind to kill their babes to save their own lives so they hid the children for as long as they could while making escape plans. Once the children passed three years the mothers gambled that the babes were strong enough to endure the trials of a long sea voyage. They were aiming for Windhelm but got lost.

"They had originally missed our city while swimming along the coast and ended up in Winterhold. They asked directions from the people on the Breakwater project that they found in a stone bubble who then directed them to our argonian friends who had moved to Winterhold to dig up the old city. However, their knowledge of Imperial is rudimentary so Shavee took a chance and traveled with them. She guided them to Refugees' Rest and Caretaker Elmon sheltered them and kept them hidden until Ambarys and I could find a better place.

"You may thank Dana for her solution. Her family has a piece of coastal property an ancestor built a private retreat on. It's a day north by horse. The girls are being well looked after by people Ambarys and I have personally selected and they're protected by Wuunferth." She laughed at Revyn's expression. "He didn't take much persuading to take the opportunity of getting to know maormer and their magic. So as far as anyone here or in her family is concerned, Great Uncle Wuunferth is temporarily living at the family property and he's hired dunmer staff because they aren't as fussy and fearful about magic as nord servants would be. Anything strange seen or heard there can then be attributed to Wuunferth practicing his craft."

"Neatly done," said Revyn. "Although, I dread to know why they were trying to reach Windhelm at all."

"Looking for you, my dear Revyn."

"Oh, no."

"Likely the Felixes are being too closely watched and they think you have a better chance to keeping the family secrets safe."

"I'm not too sure of that. Didn't dear Ardeth warn that the Dominion now think I'm more dangerous than my wife? If they can't get me, they'll certainly go after you or Ambarys or, gods forbid, Savela. First rule of war, take out your enemy's support system."

"First rule of espionage," Elani countered with a hard smile, "is not to trigger your enemy's support system."

Well, fascinating as all this was, Revyn stayed the next couple of days in town tending to office matters before traveling with Elani to the Frostburn fishing lodge along with the resupply cart and a change of guards.

Wuunferth was sitting on a bench by the door and drinking from a bottle. Revyn's steps faltered as he drew near. The man smelled like a mammoth had pissed on him. "Just in time for dinner. Rewarmed leftovers from lunch, sad to say." He made a gesture. The door opened and an overwhelming effluvium wafted out.

"Rotted shark," said Revyn, despairingly.

"Well guessed, chum. The ladies and kids love it stewed with fermented cabbage. You brought the extra kegs of dark ale? Good. Start drinking now. Don't worry about getting drunk. Once the meat hits your belly, you'll sober up soon enough or you'll spew."

Elani claimed a delicate stomach and stayed outside with the guards while Revyn whimpered, wiped at his watering eyes, and entered the barrow house.

+—+—+—+—+—+

The few books Revyn had seen that mentioned Maormer — the sea elves or fish elves and a calling about as flattering as dark elves for Dunmer — described the Maormer as having white eyes with no discernable pupils, pale flesh with a look of dense, rippled jelly that he could well believe would make them practically invisible in water.

The children's flesh lacked their mothers' characteristic for now. Hopefully, that would develop as they got older. Their half-dunmer heritage was most evident in their red sclera and iris around white pupils and their little ears that had tiny lobes and the ear tips sweeping back into a telltale dunmer shape, different from their parents' ears which shared the altmer lobeless, upright shape.

Cherrun spoke for the trio. Only she had had some limited exposure to the outside world. She spoke very basic Altmer and rudimentary Imperial. The other two were ignorant of the world outside the mist like the majority of Pyandonea's citizens. Her daughter, sitting comfortably in Revyn's lap, was Tysy who was trying to feed him the leg of a deep fried and spiced rock beetle from southern Morrowind. Pirrel's Hodah and Zyrrah's Inwin sat on the floor in the center of the circle of adults mouthing the large beetles as if teething on candy.

Revyn's lips plucked the beetle leg from Tysy's grasp and, with a leg still sticking out the corner of his mouth, went back to delicately lip nibble on her tiny fingers causing her to giggle. She ducked her head and rubbed against his cheek. He gently blew, ruffling her fine, white hair.

"They like your Ancestors," commented Elani as the boys, Inwin and Hodah, crawled over to haul themselves to their feet by grasping and pulling on the hem of Revyn's housecoat. Elani scooted over on the padded bench and lifted one boy to sit between them and the other onto her lap. The boys, like Tysy, made grabs at Revyn's Ancestor necklace.

"Antony Felix, rather," he said, "and through him the rest of House Felix. The Ra'athim and Hlaalu give cautious welcome and my Velothi kin reject, but are not actively hostile. I'll try talking to them later." He carefully unwrapped Tysy's fist from around Antony, his late father-in-law's bone token. He looked up as Cherrun loomed over him. She had a frown as she reclaimed her daughter. She said something to Mathak Indathri, one of the two language tutors here and today's interpreter.

"She asks why you wear charms of attraction, if for personal allure or for sales advantage."

"Do Maormer practice ancestor worship? These Ancestors," he was careful to touch only the Felix tokens (Antony and two of his Colovia kin sent by the Felixes), "are happy to meet their newest descendants."

Mathak explained this custom of death mementos practiced by some of the Velothi clans. It was a lengthy trial of Mathak explaining to Cherrun who then attempted to translate what she understood to Pirrel and Zyronne, who also took back their sons to hold close. Some of the Maormer practiced the old ways of ancestral worship; they were among them. For the rest, Orgnum was both king and god. While they had their doubts of Orgnum's divinity, there was no question of his power to make miserable their lives if they came to his notice. So for the sake of their families they had to leave.

"Ah. Well, do assure them that Taliesin's ancestors recognize and accept their children."

Speaking of which, this would require another special messenger to his mother-in-law, General Innana Faro. She and her late husband had sent Taliesin on that mission. He had not yet heard back from her what her plans were for the altmer cousin that had followed him back from Markarth.

But these ladies, at least, had had the foresight to bring a fair amount of wealth with them. Two small chests of pearls of excellent size and colors, of nacre shells from white to black to glorious rainbows, of uncut agates, aquamarines, carnelians, citrines, and emeralds. Two large chests of bolts of fishscale armor cloth, spices, wines, perfumes, alchemy ingredients. Most of which could only come from Pyandonea and that would have to be sold very carefully to minimize questions. Sadri suspected they had more that was prudently stashed deep underwater.

How did they get here? Surely not by swimming or by boat. A great sea serpent as their kind was reputed to be able to control? No, by shark. Thankfully, not the one they'd been eating. Revyn had trouble imaging how large a shark it had to have been to transport six passengers and their luggage across half the world. Cherrun's magic as an enchanter of the Maormer Navy.

Pirrel, he could tell, was the business minded one by the way she watched him as he inspected the chests. She closely inspected his notes as he made them. Not that she could read them, but he knew she was looking at patterns in the marks he made, recognizing numbers from other letterforms.

Zyronne was warrior of the trio. Well, perhaps not a warrior but certainly one who's livelihood required constant, heavy physical activity. "Fishing and diving," said Wuunferth. "She's the one who catches all the fish we've been having. She bounces around on a boat like a bosmer across tree limbs."

"But should she be out on a boat? What if she's seen?" asked Revyn.

Wuunferth grinned. "On the days she goes out, it so happens those are the days it's suddenly very foggy on this section of the coast."

+—+—+—+—+—+

"You usually don't drink so early in the day," said Elani, dropping into the chair at his right.

"General Faro finally replied." He gave the paper to Elani. She read, "New blood will have to stay with you. Researching strategies for future rescue operation. Alert: new packages coming your way by sea for safekeeping."

"It actually was sent around three weeks ago," Revyn said, "but what with all the assassination excitement and high security around the Moot, the messenger, a footsoldier, couldn't get it to me in a timely manner because of all the sudden shifts in his troop reassignments and tightened security. He couldn't find a way to leave his post long enough to make the delivery. So first chance he got to get to Whiterun and finding I'd already left, he gambled on passing the message to Nicky instead who personally delivered it this morning."

"I see. So the girls remain your responsibility." She was careful to not let her internal grin reach outside to her lips.

It didn't work because he narrowed his eyes at her and demanded, "I know you're laughing. What is so funny?"

"Your newest venture. Sadri's Used Wares and Fishmongers," she said, grinning.

The Writer Of Lucifenia: Not a dumb question. Someone's finally called me on it. I'd also read in the UESP pages that her character was originally scripted to be Sings-of-Dreams until the "no-lizards inside the city" rule was put in place (although in recent SE game updates I now see Marshes hanging out in the Cornerclub) and so she was changed to be a dunmer and Sadri's sister. She still spends her evenings in the Argonian Assemblage however. I tend to forget about her since I've never bothered to interact with her. But she (and her creepy "I'm the only friend you need") does occasionally flit about to remind me she exists. I haven't yet figured how or if I'm going to bring her in, explain why she's been missing for so long, why Revyn's never mentioned her, and her apparent affinity for argonians.

Vahditar: Thanks for the comments. Feedback always welcome.