They all needed treating in some form or another, but the man named Dirge was struck a harsh blow in the head and was almost certainly concussed.

"Now sir." I said to the shorter man, whose name was Gorag, "You must tell me everything, holding nothing back. That you did not take up arms against us in the dungeon below is in your favor. That you did not threaten to hurt the children on the road also speaks in your favor. "But for your part in the rest, there must be justice before there can be the possibility of forgiveness."

"You mention your family." Lucia said. She had removed her helm, revealing her golden hair, and her beauty had its usual effect. It took, by my count, five seconds before one of the men found his voice, and it was not a surprise when that voice was Gorag's.

"Dirge has children of his own; a boy and a girl." Gorag said. "Sulla knows where they live."

"Who is Sulla?" I asked.

"He works for the hedge lord Zedrick." Gorag said. "Stanis, the one you captured on the road, he works for Sulla. Stanis hired us."

"Hired." Rolf said. "He don't pay us. We do his dirty work, so we don't starve, and so he don't take Dirge's bairns."

"This man Sulla threatens to take your children?" I asked Dirge.

Dirge began to cry again.

"He tells Dirge and all of us: Fill your quota of children. If the count is short, I know where I can find two to make up the difference."

"Gods." Dirge said, his crying continuing. "Oh Gods."

"And it would be us Sulla sent to take them." Gorag said, "Me and Rolf, and Lorgan."

"Who is Lorgan?" I asked.

"He died on the way back here." Rolf said.

"What would any of you have done?" Gorag said. "What choice would you have made in our place? Would you take bairns you didn't know, or would you take a boy and girl that have called you Uncle since they could talk?"

"We never hurt no kids." Rolf said. "We took 'em, sure enough, the ones that Stanis didn't buy outright, but we never abused them. Dirge carried a couple of 'em once the wagon dropped us off and we started walking."

"What do you mean, bought outright?" I asked

"Two of them little ones we didn't take." Gorag said. "Their parents offered to sell them to us, and Stanis bought them."

"Lorgan bought them." Dirge said. "He gave Stanis the gold."

"They were on the young side." Gorag said "But we was late, and it was quicker than a fight, and their parents wanted rid of them."

"They offered to sell their children, and you agreed?" Aric said.

"Would any of you have offered to sell your bairns?" Rolf asked.

Our faces were more than enough answer.

"I didn't think so." Rolf said. "What kind of parent does that? 'Course we agreed. You didn't see how they was living. Those two are better off."

"Sulla wouldn't have been happy with 'em, but Sulla's never happy." Dirge said.

"They're too young for anything but service." Gorag said. "Zedrick would have just sold them to an Inn. They would have been put to work, but they would have been fed and warm."

"Stanis was a right bugger." Gorag said. "I'm glad you pinched him. Lorgan shouldn't have hit that woman. He weren't a bad lot, but we was running out of time. We had to get back here and give them kids to those two cultists."

"What did the cultists want with the children?" I asked.

"We don't know." Rolf said.

"Zedrick deals with them." Gorag said. "I stayed as far away from them as I could. Gave me the shivers, they did."

"They were always nattering on about something strange." Rolf said, "Not right in the head those two."

"Were these the only two cultists you had dealings with?" Lucia asked.

"Yes. Cosh and Jora." Gorag said. "Jora was in charge. I thought she was some sort of priestess. I never knew she was a mage until you showed up."

"She was a quite powerful mage." Aric said.

"It was Stanis that usually dealt with them." Rolf said, "then after Stanis was nicked it was Lorgan."

"What did they natter on about?" Aric asked quietly.

"Nonsense mostly." Rolf said. "Couldn't understand most of it. But they kept going on about paradise and someone or something called Camoran."

The name certainly meant something to Aric, and by the look on his face, Kurst as well.

"So, you returned here after fleeing from us on the road, reported what occurred, and these cultist dispatched assassins to deal with me?" I asked.

The three men seemed confused.

"We don't know nothing about any assassins." Gorag said.

"There was no one here but us." Rolf said. "And neither of them two ever left here."

"Someone knew my name and my face, and where to find me." I said.

"We never said anything about you, Lady." Rolf said. "Lorgan told them we was waylaid by warriors from Skyrim, that was all."

"None of you mentioned the Reverend Mother by name, or her destination?" Aric said.

"We didn't know your destination, Milord; and I, for one, didn't remember the Lady's name."

"Come sirs, it was one of the four of you who shared that information, there were no others." Kurst said.

"There was Stanis." Dirge said.

"Stanis sits in a jail said." Kurst said.

"Unless he spoke to someone after he was placed there." Lucia said. "A visitor, or a guard in someone's pay."

"That ain't hard to find in Bruma, Milady." Rolf said. "It ain't hard to find in any big city."

"Gods." I said. "Stanis and the assassins are neighbors. This hypothetical guard can carry messages back and forth from all three."

"Word must be sent to the Countess." Kurst said. "That practice must cease."

"Another addition to the list of tasks before us." Lucia said.

Aric indicated that he wished to speak.

"Rest a moment while I confer with my colleagues." I said to the three men. "You are, for the moment, on parole. If you continue to behave well, you will remain so."

"We ain't running, Lady, but remember Dirge's little 'uns." Gorag said. "With these two dead, and all us captured, Sulla won't know what to think."

"He may think we are all dead." Rolf said.

"I promise that I will remember, and I have no intention of leaving Dirge's family vulnerable to these men." I said.

"I admit that I cannot say with any certainty what choice I would have made if someone gave me such an ultimatum and had the power to carry it out." Aric said.

"This situation becomes more horrible with each passing moment." Kurst said. "I am ashamed to admit that I had considered executing these men after summary judgement."

"My head spins." I said. "And I am ashamed."

"What shames you?" Aric asked as he found my hand with his.

"My anger has been driving me forward since we saw those poor, bound children on the road." I said. "And lacking any other target, it aimed me at these men who sit there; men who are in there own way victims. I am ashamed of what I held in my heart these last few days."

"The truth of his words stung me." Kurst said. "I have never known the hardships he described. I do not know to what lengths desperation would drive me. And I am ashamed to admit the truth in his other words. His lot are a faceless host to me. I take no notice of them unless they block my path. If you took the servants from my own household and placed them in a crowd, I could not identify them, even if my life hung in the balance."

"It is the times in which we live." Aric said. "It is not a time of prosperity for all."

"If we lower the standard of prosperity to simply not starving to death, or freezing to death, then we deserve whatever punishment the Divines devise for us." I said. "The actions of these three men, and their dead comrade, were reprehensible; but the conditions that drove them to such actions were more so."

"We have recent experience of how an evil can grip a country when those who are charged to govern and protect it sit behind walls, ignoring what others can see plainly, and the needs of the people." Aric said.

"But unlike the troubles in Skyrim, Cyrodiil's plague cannot be cured through force of arms." I said.

"And it is a problem as old as Cyrodiil itself." Kurst said. "If it were a simple matter to solve, it would no longer exist."

"We must be away if we are to return to the village before dark." Aric said. "And we must take them with us. They were certainly coerced, but they are still not innocents. Some form of justice must prevail here."

"The villagers will surely kill them if we bring them back." Lucia said.

"No." I said. "Not if they are in my charge. None will harm them. I will call a village moot. They will all hear the tale we have heard. Let them all ask themselves the same question we were asked: What would you have done in my place. The village will have its say where justice truly lies in this matter. But I will argue quite strongly that is should not lay in three more deaths."

"If your eyes begin to burn while you argue for leniency, do not be surprised if no voice is raised in opposition." Lucia said.

"I will do my utmost to control my anger, but I make no definitive promise, sister." I answered.

"Remember your promise to that man's family." Lucia said.

"I do not forget it." I said. "I will protect his family, even if it requires a giant glowing raptor circling above his home until the sun rises no more."

"Well," Kurst said with a smile, "That would certainly be a sight to see."

It was well after dark when we finally arrived at the village.

Our departure from the ruined fort was somewhat delayed after we realized that none of us had brought a shovel, which we would need to bury Lorgan, and which necessitated a short search of the fort. The process of burying their fallen comrade delayed our journey further, as did the pace at which the two men could walk in their depleted state.

Dirge rode one of the two horses that we had taken from the fort, their previous owners having no further need or them. The tents, bedrolls, and other possessions of the three prisoners rode, securely fastened, upon the second horse.

We were all of us quite worn out when we entered the village, which may account for my lack of patience with the uproar that resulted when the presence of three of the bandits that had recently terrorized the residents became known.

"They will overwhelm us." Kurst said as the entire village population filled the small village square and screamed for retribution. "People will be injured."

Night became day as the power of the Earthbones filled me and my body burned like the sun and the flaming bird of prey formed around me.

"These men are in my charge." I said, my voice echoing from each building in the small hamlet. "No one will touch them. Assemble the entire village. We will convene a moot."

The uproar ended suddenly at that point.

"You now know as much as we do." I said to the village residents, all of whom were seated in the barn, the three prisoners in the center. "It is for each of you to search your own heart and ask yourself What would I have done in their place? Ask, then, that the Divines grant you the wisdom to reach a just decision as to the fate of these men. I warn you, however: neither the Captain, nor the Archmage or his daughter, or myself could answer the first question with certainty, and the Divines have so far not granted any of us the wisdom required for this case."

It was quiet for some time, with only the sounds of animals to be heard, until a villager whose name I did not know spoke.

"They was forced, no mistake." He said. "But they still kidnapped children, our as well as others. That deserves punishment."

"But what punishment?" A woman asked. "They was under duress. It was his own kids being threatened."

"It don't matter." The first man said.

"Then you must punish me as well." Lucien said.

That statement drew silence from everyone present.

"And me." Adrian said. "We was kidnapped a year ago, near enough, and forced into Nels' gang. They made us take part in raids. The made us watch things, made us do things."

The room was silent as Adrian wept. Lucien walk to his cousin and placed his arm around him.

These were the two boys who had stood watch and watch guarding the village. A village that looked on them as deliverers.

"I still have bad dreams." Adrian said. "The Reverend Mother heard our confession and tells us that the Divines forgive us. But I still have bad dreams. I will carry the guilt all my life."

"So, punish all of us." Lucien said. "We all did things we didn't want to do."

I walked up and knelt by the two boys.

"Why did you not tell anyone that you still had bad dreams?" I asked softly.

"Because we're supposed to be men now. We wear armor. We carry swords. We ain't supposed to cry out at night, or in the day for that matter."

"I have fought more battles than I can count." Aric said as he knelt beside me. "And killed many, many enemies. One of them was a boy no older than either of you. I cried over him, as he died. I have cried over other deaths as well. All of my children, particularly my eldest who stands there, have heard me cry out at night. If my guilt was water, there would be no lake large enough to hold it. Do you say, therefore, that I am not a man?"

"No, Milord." Each boy replied.

"Then I also say, in return, that if I am a man you are also men."

Dirge began to weep again. The eight children from the road were present but seated to the rear of the villagers. Dirge knelt and faced their direction but would not raise his eyes from the floor.

"I can't look at any of you." He said. "If I do, I will die of shame. But I asked, not for pardon, or forgiveness, but for the chance to see my family safe. Then I will accept whatever punishment you decide."

It was the girl from one of the southern farms who stood up and walked forward. She seemed the youngest and was certainly the smallest; almost certainly one of the pair that had been sold rather than stolen.

"You carried me." She said in her high voice. "When the wagon left us, and we had to walk. You carried me and my brother a long time. You told us to be brave."

"Cause you remind me of my little ones." Dirge said as the girl knelt with him and they embraced.

"Lorgan shouldn't have hit you, Lady." Rolf said to Capius. "He weren't cruel, we was just in a panic, thinking we would be too late, and Sulla would take Dirge's bairns. Lorgan's dead, and can't ask your pardon, but I ask it in his place."

"Gods." Ennis said as he stood and began to pace. "Merciful Gods. What did I do?"

"It is not your fault, sir." Aric said. "You were defending your family."

"I was defending it against men who were just as panicked as I was, and for the same reasons." Ennis said as his agitation grew. "They was thinking of that man's family, and I was thinking of mine. I have taken a man's life. Blessed Mother forgive me."

He sat down and held his head in his hands as his wife consoled him.

"You saw armed men invade your village." I said. "You did not know the full story, and you did not have time to inquire.

You have until recently seen me only as a priestess who heals. I will tell you plainly that I have taken many lives defending Skyrim, which is my home, against invasion. The number of dead by my hand would shock you were you to know it. At the time, my actions seemed proper. It was only afterwards that guilt took hold of me. I still feel its grip from time to time.

I do not say that you will ever be free of it. The Thane and Archmage is one of the most powerful men I have ever known. He tells you himself the depths of his guilt. These two youths, and these three men, and you, good Husband and Father, share that bond with both Archmage and Archpriestess. It is a retched fellowship. It leaves a bitter taste in one's mouth.

And you will not believe me when I say this, but it helps to talk to others who share that bond, who know that bitter taste. I say this to all present. Your grief and guilt will attempt to trick you, and make you believe that you must carry it alone. I tell you, that is a lie; do not believe it. Let your friends and family help you. It is, after all, what friends and family are for."

The sounds of weeping emanated from several points. For several minutes it was the only sound.

"What does the wise woman say?" asked another villager, looking at Ysabeth Locke

"The Hidden Man knows of your presence, Daughter of Kyne." Ysabeth Locke said. "He has heard on the wind that a daughter of the Divines travels Cyrodiil. He begins his search in earnest."

"The Hidden Man, mother?" I asked her.

Se, joka piilottaa kasvonsa. Ysabeth said.

"The one who hides his face" Aric said.

"The one who would open the gates again." I said. "He is aware of me, and my heritage."

"There are only two men who could have shared that information." Lucia said. "Only two who saw the bird aspect of Tava that night in the Mother House.'

Maliyah and Giselle both began to prey quietly.

"It was our intention to divert his attention from the abduction of children" Aric said, "And it seems that we have succeeded."

"But his attention is now for the Reverend Mother." Kurst said, "He is searching for her."

"He best take care, or he will find me." I said as my anger built again.

The reaction of almost everyone who could see my face informed me that my control was lacking.

Kynen tytär menee sotaan. Hän tarvitsee sotilaita. Ysabeth said.

"The Daughter of Kyne goes to war. She will need soldiers." Aric translated.

"Servitude to the Red Hawk Priestess." Ysabeth said as she pointed a crooked finger at me. "That is their punishment, and their absolution. Defend the Daughter of Kyne."

"There is an old custom that would serve." Aric said, "if that is the decision of the Moot."

Aric looked at the assembled crowed, but there were no objections.

Aric looked at the three men. Dirge and been holding the little girl in his lap but told her to go to one of the older girls as he, Rolf and Gorag stood.

"You will all serve her Grace for a period of one year." Aric said to the three men. "Be cautioned, if this year is anything like last, it will be arduous as well as dangerous. Not too many months ago my daughter, who stands there, was at the very point of death. She says that she saw the banquet table set for her in Sovngarde. It was only the healing of the Reverend Mother, only a small part of which you have seen, that saved her. I tell you this because she is a very powerful warrior and mage, and her service to the Reverend Mother still nearly ended her life."

Their looks were serious, but not afraid.

"Each child that you abducted that is here present will stand before you and recite their name. You will each apologize to them. As we return them to their homes you will apologize to the entire village from where they were forcefully removed, starting with this village.

Finally, a line is hereby drawn in the book of your lives, separating what comes before from what comes after. It is not a new life; not yet. You must build that over the coming year. But it is a start, and you mark that start by shedding the names you carried when you offended. New names will be given you, when appropriate."

"What shall they be called until then" I asked.

"Ensim", Ysabeth said, pointing to Gorag

"Toinen", she said, pointing to Rolf

"Kolmas", she said, point to Dirge.

"Ysabeth the Fair is familiar with the custom." Aric said as he smiled at her.

She cackled "I know how to count, Dragon Prince." She said.

Aric looked at me.

"Giselle, bring the list of children." I said. "We will begin at the top and work our way down."

"What would you have done?" I asked Railius.

He had not visited me in my dreams for some time. We sat in the shade of a large elm, looking at the monument that stood above his final resting place. His younger appearance had persisted.

"I can't answer that, lass." He replied. "I would have killed any man that threatened you or Lita."

"They would have killed you." I said.

"True." He said. "We don't know how many men this Sulla has. Five determined men will give any force pause, but this lot was too cowed by fear."

"I cannot blame them." I said. "Aric himself says he does not know what he would have done."

"Anyone who threatens his family will be sent to Oblivion in a trice." Railius said.

"I still do not understand what part these children play in the Hidden Man's plans, or why his attention now turns to me." I said. "I am certainly not a child."

"They don't kidnap wee bairns." Railius said. "Most of them eight you rescued are well on their way to being grown."

"The youngest is Olda, the girl who was sold with her brother Olaf from the next farm we visit, one of the children that Dirge carried."

"You mean Kolmas." Railius said with a smile.

"It is a strange custom." I said. "I admit to total ignorance of it."

"The wise woman knew it." Railius said.

"She speaks the language of ancient Atmora." I said. "Is it a custom from that frozen land?"

"Could be." He replied. "Those names sounded a bit foreign."

"Anything that does not originate in Skyrim sounds a bit foreign to you." I said.

"Anything that originates outside Skyrim is, by definition, foreign." Railius said.

"Is that what has kept you away so long, father?" I asked. "You have been studying Philosophy?"

"Your life seemed settled." Railius said, "and I did not want to intrude."

"You promised you would never leave me." I reminded him.

"I never did leave you." He replied. "I just don't interrupt your dreams as often."

"What do you do then, when you are not interrupting my dreams?" I asked him

He smiled.

"I sit under that Gildergreen in Whiterun and watch that priestess of Kynareth as she walks by." He said.

"Father!" I said, laughing. "That cannot possibly be proper, to ogle a priestess in that fashion."

"I have not described the fashion in which I ogle her, lass." He said. "Besides, I'm younger now, thanks to you. She and I are about the same age."

"Gods." I said. "You will not interrupt her dreams, as you do mine, Father. You must promise me so."

"Why?" he asked. "Do you believe she will not like me?"

"I think she will like you far too much." I said, "And I would not share you with anyone."

"Well," he said, his smile growing, "Maybe I'll just stop by, introduce myself, and not stay long."