Akiseta let out a small hiss as she stared at the cards in her hand.

"Bad hand?" The driver, Thaer, called over his shoulder.

"What do you think?" Akiseta grumbled.

Serana couldn't help but chuckle. "It's just a game, Aki."

"Easy for you to say. You're winning."

Serana sat with Akiseta on the floor of the carriage, playing cards. Thaer had let the women use his card deck to play some card games during the journey. Serana appreciated it quite a bit. She'd never really played any games growing up at the castle, but her mother did teach her 'Solitaire.' And there were a few member of the court who did like to play card games.

Akiseta was a different story. While the Argonian was also grateful for something to do, it quickly became apparent that she was not fond of card games. Luck games, strategy games, didn't matter. It seemed she hated them all.

"Just relax a little, Aki. It's not like we're playing for coin."

"You'd be broke if you were." Thaer commented.

Akiseta narrowed her eyes. "Oh, shut up." She looked back at her cards. "I fold." She said, handing her cards back to Serana.

Serana looked at them. "Good choice. Want to play another hand?"

"No."

"Want to play another game then? That Caravan game Thaer showed us was really fun."

"Then you can play it with him next time we stop."

"Just one hand? Please?" Serana gave Akiseta a pleading look.

Akiseta sighed. "...fine."

Smiling triumphantly, Serana shuffled the cards, and handed half the deck to Akiseta. The two women shuffled their halves, and began playing.

Serana found the game quite enjoyable. It was the most strategy based card game she'd ever seen. They had to build three 'caravans' out of their cards, and keep their 'value' above twenty and below twenty-seven, while preventing their opponent from doing the same thing. She wished it had been something that had been around before she got locked away. It probably would have driven those members of the court crazy.

After a while, Akiseta sighed in defeat.

"Want to play again?" Serana asked.

"No." Akiseta sat back on one of the seats of the carriage, and pulled a book titled A Hypothetical Treachery out of her bag.

Serana shrugged, shuffling the deck, and began playing Solitaire.

"It's a good thing you don't run a caravan for real." Thaer said to Akiseta.

"I payed you to take us to Winterhold. Not to comment of my card playing skills." Akiseta retorted.

"Or lack there of." Serana remarked.

Akiseta glared at her. "Shut up."

"It's not my fault you suck at cards."

"I don't suck! Cards sucks." Akiseta grumbled. "You suck." She hissed quietly, resuming reading the book.

Serana shook her head, an amused smile crossing her lips. 'At least she's talking now.'

For a few days after leaving Solitude, the Argonian had been very quiet for the most part, only answering a few of Thaer's questions and minor small talk. Serana had talked with the carriage driver about Solitude and Winterhold during the time. Thaer seemed happy to talk to someone you didn't know the full history of either place, and Serana was happy to have a conversation.

She kept thinking back on the festival. Akiseta had seemed so happy while they'd been dancing. She'd been the one to suggest it in the first place. And it had been nice. Really nice. Serana hadn't ever been comfortable being so close to someone else, but when she was dancing with Akiseta, she hadn't minded. She had enjoyed it really. And she'd been disappointed when it ended.

She remembered the guilt that had been on Akiseta's face, and the way the Argonian traced her tattoo. The tattoo she got from her former lover, Thari-Na. Serana figured she must have been the last person Akiseta had danced with, which did explain her behavior.

Serana thought back to how Akiseta had told her that Argonians didn't have the concept of time in their culture. Birth to death was all one moment. Which is why most Argonians weren't too bothered by the concept of 'Shunatei', though the concept seemed to trouble Akiseta frequently.

'So, if time is all just one moment, then even, though Akiseta says she's let go of those feelings for Thari-Na, she's still moving on.' Serana thought. If life was all just one moment, then the relationship had ended for Thari-Na, since she had a mate, but it was still ending for Akiseta.

It made Serana's heart go out to Akiseta. She couldn't imagine how that had to feel. It all also made her head hurt.

Time eventually became trivial for a vampire. No matter how many years went by, no matter what happened in the world, nothing ever truly changed. The sun still rose and set. The moons waxed and waned. The snow and rain still fell. People still lost themselves to power. Time was more precious to mortals, who had all of it to lose. And yet so many wasted it.

But at the same time, living an eternity gave Serana many options. To see things others had only written about, things others had only dreamed of. And it made all the precious moments much more sweet.

So it didn't really matter if life was one moment or many.

Serana looked up at Akiseta. The Argonian was immersed in her reading.

Serana especially liked the moments with her scaly friend. She looked back at the cards, biting her lip a little, feeling a small longing for a certain close moment she couldn't get out of her mind.


Akiseta looked up at the stars while they stopped for the night. They lit up the sky. She saw the stars of The Thief in the sky. The cold made her shiver. Evening Star was definitely here.

'The one thing I wouldn't miss is the colds winters of this province.' She thought to herself. She heard soft crunching in the snow

"Star gazing?" Serana asked, sitting next to her.

"I like seeing the stars."

"So do I. On clear nights, I would love standing out on my balcony. What sign were you born under?"

"The Serpent."

"Some people say that's a bad omen."

"And some say it's a good omen."

"What do you think?"

Akiseta shrugged. "I'm not really sure. On the one hand, there are things in my life that have been so bad I thought I may have been cursed, but I've also had blessings. The Serpent embodies both. My birth sign would have been the Warrior if the Serpent weren't in the sky that night. What about you?"

Serana turned her head away.

"Come on, beeko. Tell me."

Serana sighed. "The... The Lover."

Akiseta snickered a little. "The Lover?"

Serana narrowed her eyes. "Yes. The Lover. I'm glad to see you find that so amusing."

"I'm sorry, Serana. It makes sense. You are passionate about things. And you are a graceful dancer."

"Then maybe we should dance more often." Serana suggested.

Akiseta shrugged, looking at the snow, feeling warmth in her cheeks. It wasn't like she didn't want to. She did. But, she wasn't sure they should. Wasn't sure she could. It.. it was just... too hard. She traced her tattoo, claws lightly scraping against her scales.

It was silent for a bit.

"So, since you don't like cards, what games do you like to play?" Serana asked.

"Well, I really like playing Teeba-Hatsei."

"What's that?"

"A popular sport among the Saxhleel. In common tongue, it translates to 'hip-and-tail ball.' It's really fun."

"How is it played?"

"Well, it's usually played by two teams of five. We play on a broad field, in Black Marsh it's made of dry mud and salt-meadow hay. On either end of the field is a wall, usually made of mud and eeto cane. Two reed hoops are suspended on the field. Hoop heights, wall heights, and field sizes vary from village to village." Akiseta explained. "The teeba, the ball, is served skyward, and the teams volley it around, hitting it with their hips, elbows, and tails. When a player strikes the teeba against the opposing teams wall, they earn a point. The first team to earn ten points wins."

"What are the hoops for?"

"If a team member scores the ball into the lower hoop, they earn three points. If they score it into the higher one, the game ends, and the team with the most points wins."

"What if there's a draw?"

"Then they play until one more point is won."

"Is the game hard?"

"Not at all. For us, anyway. Since Khajiit tails are so thin, and the rest of the landstriders lack tails, playing it can be tricky. I let Lucia hit it with her hands, so she can play. You know, I just happen to have a teeba in my bag. I bought one in Solitude, since we lost our old one."

Akiseta looked at Serana smugly. "Feel up to a game? I'll let you use your hands."

"We can play here?"

"Just give me a little time to improvise a court."

"Sure. I'm not tired."


A little while later, the 'field' was all set. Akiseta had found a clear space with two trees that were a decent enough distance away from each other, and were almost directly opposite.

She made 'hoops' in the trees by tying some of their branches into circular shapes with cloth.

She held the ball up, and looked across the way at Serana. "First person to five points wins! You ready, beeko?"

"Ready!" Serana called.

Akiseta grinned. 'We'll see about that.'

She threw the ball upward, and jumped, smacking it with her elbow. Serana lunged for it, giving it a good whack with her hand.

Akiseta sidestepped, hitting it with her hip. When Serana smacked it back, she struck it with her tail. The ball flew right past Serana's hand, and hit her tree.

"I may have forgotten to mention I'm awesome at this game!" Akiseta called.

Now it was Serana's turn to serve. Serana threw the ball up. She waited until the ball was almost to the ground, before half-crouching, and struck it with the palm of her hand. The ball flew past Akiseta as she tried to intercept with her tail, and it hit her tree.

"Looks like I'm not to bad either!" The vampire said.

"It'll take more then strength to win."

The game continued for a while. Akiseta had to admit, Serana was pretty good at the game. She put a lot of her strength into her hits. Akiseta had been able to intercept some, but that resulted in her elbows and tail stinging with pain.

Soon enough, they were matched at four points each.

It was Akiseta's turn to serve. She bit her lip in thought. She wasn't going to lose at Teeba-Hatsei. Especially not to a landstrider, vampire or otherwise.

She served, and they volleyed the ball back and forth. Serana had picked up on how to use her hips to play, and used that skill to intercept low hits from the ball.

Closing some of the distance, Akiseta used her tail to smack the ball up high. Serana jumped, and hit it at an angle with her palm.

Akiseta waited a moment, then struck the ball upward with her tail again, and jumped to give it one last hit with her elbow. It landed on the edge of the lower hoop, and fell through the hoop.

Akiseta pumped her fist in the air victoriously, swishing her tail. "I believe that gives me my five points. Plus two extra."

"Congratulations. You're good at this, and at math." Serana picked up the ball, and walked over to Akiseta. "That almost makes up for your poor card skills." She said with a smirk.

Akiseta took the ball. Setting it in the snow, she stepped closer to Serana. "Did you enjoy the game, beeko?"

Serana nodded. "I did. It's a pretty fun game. We should play it more sometime."

"We will, don't worry." Akiseta said with a grin. She quickly hooked one of her legs behind Serana's, and pulled it out from under her, causing the vampire to fall flat on her back in the snow.

Before Serana got up, Akiseta adjusted herself so she straddled the lower part of her stomach, and gripped her wrists, keeping her pinned down.

"Seriously, Aki?" Serana asked. "What are you, twelve?"

"Twenty-six, actually." Akiseta tilted her head. "What are you, twelve-hundred?"

"I think I'm a little older, actually. So you should respect your elder."

"Technically, you are older. But, technically, you also aren't, since you haven't exactly been aging all this time."

"You want to win this by splitting hairs?"

"I have feathers, not hair."

"Another technicality?"

"Naturally."

The two women laughed.

Akiseta brushed a few flakes of snow from Serana's hair, and brushed away a loose raven-colored lock out of Serana's face.

The vampire turned her head away. "Could... could you let me up now?"

Akiseta had almost forgotten the position they were currently in. "Yeah. Sorry." She helped the vampire to her feet. ""We should probably get some sleep. We'll be arriving in Winterhold the day after tomorrow."

"Yeah.."


Sleep didn't come easily for Akiseta that night. A lot crossed her mind. She wanted to get the Dragon Scroll, get all the scrolls back to Dexion, find Auriel's bow, and put a stop to all this mess with the prophecy.

But, a part of her didn't want to do this. She was enjoying traveling with Serana. Enjoying spending time with her. Alone. She wanted it to last longer. It was selfish to want it to be prolonged. Wasn't it?

Akiseta glanced over at the sleeping vampire. She looked peaceful.

Akiseta bit her lip, feeling a familiar tug in her chest. Her cheeks felt warm against the cold air. 'Not again. Not again... I can't..'

She closed her eyes, trying to push herself to sleep.


Teeba: Ball

Teeba-Hatsei: Hip-and-tail ball.


A/N: Steadily and surely, these two are growing closer. They'll both still have some person reflecting and reconciling to do yet. So keep focusing on the positive.