Author's Note:

'Only' 40 more chapters to go :) I hope you all are still enjoying the story and are ready for more. Yet again, I want to thank all of you. I never would have thought to get so many reads over the platforms. I hope that the story is not getting any worse the longer it gets O:) I know that it's how it often goes, but I can't help it, I still have so many more ideas and plans :D There's no ending this long ride yet and I hope that you're still enjoying it as much as I am.

Thank you for all the support and enjoy the chapter :)

Chapter CX – Old Life

"Are you certain, lady Aeyrin?"

Elisif stared at her with some measure of disbelief in her pale-blue eyes.

"Yes, your majesty. I would… really appreciate your assistance in this…"

Elisif shook her head in confusion while she looked her over, as if she was wondering whether Aeyrin was in any danger and saying this under duress or some such.

"I… are you really sure? If… if you have any information that would help us get to the bottom of this…" Elisif looked rather desperate for answers.

But Aeyrin's decision has been made.

"Nothing… relevant, your majesty. Just… know that this was a personal matter and I am very sorry that so many people got involved. I only want Bishop absolved of his charges. And… I hope that everything can go back to normal after my departure," she sighed with a regretful shake of her head.

What good would telling her do? Casavir was still… he was doing good for the people. And if Bishop and her were gone from his life… it would be better for everyone.

Still… every time she thought of the lengths he went to, the way he was willing to hurt her… it made her heart clench. She thought that she understood him, that she found a friend in him. She thought that he was a good and noble man.

But no… Bishop was right.

His vows meant nothing. His ideals meant nothing.

She meant nothing to him.

If she did, he would have never hurt her like that. Not by making her think that the man whom she loved had poisoned her in order to cheat on her. How did he even come up with this scheme? Did he just try to think of the worst thing that Bishop could do and orchestrate it? Or did it somehow spin out of control for him? She found it hard to believe that Casavir would fabricate a story about Bishop sleeping with Elisif of all people. He probably would have gone with something more believable, wouldn't he? Then again… he was clearly fond of making up far-fetched stories about Bishop.

Elisif sighed defeatedly. She was so strangely disappointed when Aeyrin tried to end it all for good. Didn't she want this whole matter over with too? Perhaps she had just expected more answers.

"Follow me, please," the Queen got up from her throne and headed towards one of the chambers. Aeyrin followed her, somewhat tiredly. It's been such a long day. She had only woken from her delirium, woozy and confused, before all this came tumbling down on her head.

At least it was over now.

"I'm not sure how I can get away with letting the crime go unpunished…" Elisif sighed as they reached what looked like her bedroom. It was lavishly decorated but still somewhat more humble than Aeyrin would have expected it to be.

"What do you mean? I'm the one who got poisoned. Isn't it up to me whether I want to pursue this?" Aeyrin frowned at her uncertainly. She really didn't want to drag this on. It would only end in more investigations and she was too tired of them. Besides, who knew whether Casavir wouldn't find a way to turn this against Bishop again? No… this was better.

And she didn't want to see Casavir again. She couldn't stand to look at him right now.

"Yes… technically, you are right. But your… state… somewhat inconvenienced some people. There was…a dragon and they… sort of expected us to do something about it… since you were in the city…" Elisif sighed while she walked over to her desk to grab a parchment and a quill.

"Oh… I didn't hear about that… I am sorry that you had to deal with that. But… what if I wasn't in the city?" Aeyrin cringed slightly. She wasn't capable of helping. It was basically the same thing, wasn't it?

"But you were," Elisif sighed again, shaking her head.

"But… what if I was conscious and just… refused to help?" Aeyrin scowled at her. Was it now mandatory for her to come running? Not that she would ever refuse to help, but… she needed that to be her decision.

Elisif didn't answer for a while she scribbled something down at the parchment in neat handwriting.
When she was finally done, she turned to her again with a regretful look.

"I understand where you're coming from, lady Aeyrin, I really do. No one can force you to do this in theory… until trouble is at our doorstep and all the theories lay forgotten. I'm sorry… this is my mess and you need not be dragged into it. Just a bit of sad truth for the future I guess… you know how things are in desperate times. People won't always ask you nicely…"

It sounded like she was speaking from experience. Aeyrin couldn't even imagine the weight of her crown, even with only half of Skyrim technically under her rule. Elisif stumbled into this role just like she did – by unfortunate events.

The Queen turned back around to her desk and she dipped one of her large gaudy signet rings in ink, before she pressed it against the paper. She then followed the same process with another ring. "Just tell me, do these things happen often to you two? Because if so, I might just have to alert the printing house to make me some templates for this," she giggled briefly, but there was still strain and weariness in her voice.

"I… I'm sure that won't be necessary…" Aeyrin gave her a wry smile. This was their second collective banishment after all, so who knew? It sounded like it was a popular sentence up here. It was probably because the Holds were somewhat independent, unlike the cities in Cyrodiil.

"You say that, but I'm already doing this for the second time," Elisif giggled again while she rolled the parchment up and tied a neat red silk ribbon around it.

"What?" Aeyrin gave her a confused look.

"For Bishop. The pardon. This is the second one."

What?! 'Second' pardon? Was she supposed to know about this? Elisif certainly acted like this was old news. Was there something else that she had missed while she was being kept in that state? Did they try to convict Bishop for something else too?

"Oh Gods… I may have said something that I shouldn't have…" Elisif bit her lower lips nervously, but soon enough, her expression turned into a fierce scowl instead and she firmly handed Aeyrin the parchment. "You know what? No. No more of this. I am ending this all for good," she marched towards her bed and opened her nightstand. She rummaged inside for a while before she fished out an old withered parchment. "Here. Take it, burn it or do whatever else you wish with this. This is the end of it. Neither you nor Bishop are banished from Skyrim or from Haafingar. Ever… for… perpetuity. If you break my laws, I'll just have you arrested like normal people do in the Fourth Era. Who has time to keep track of criminals running around the wilderness?!" Elisif threw her hands up exasperatedly, but Aeyrin was hardly listening. She was too busy peering at the parchment that she had carefully unrolled.

It was likely a very young Bishop and what looked like his… family? There was certainly some resemblance. She may not have even recognized him if it weren't for that.

And holy shit! Twenty thousand drakes per head?! What did they do?!

Seeing her confused stare, Elisif finally explained. "My late husband issued this. For banditry. Stealing from the nobles, even from the crown. It was delivered to me from an anonymous source after you were wounded. I assume that the intent was to have me arrest Bishop. But… I will not hold a child accountable for such crimes. And after what you two did for me… I gave him a pardon for this. Privately. That's how the rumors started."

It was delivered to her anonymously?

Casavir…

It must have been him. He certainly seemed to know more about Bishop's past than anyone, save for perhaps the people from the Guild. How much lower could that man sink?

"So... the past crimes are pardoned and even though he snuck into the Castle without permission, I personally consider his brief banishment and false accusation to be punishment enough, since there was no evidence of any theft. If you are still sure then… we are… done with this?" Elisif looked at her expectantly.

Aeyrin rolled up the old parchment and stashed it in her pack along the new pardon. She definitely needed some explanations for all this. It was yet another reason why she couldn't wait to see Bishop again.

She looked at the Queen with determination. Poor Elisif, they have caused her so much trouble for such pettiness. "I am sure, your majesty. Rest assured, I am not going to cause you any more trouble. We are leaving Solitude. And… I am sorry for everything."

"None of this was your fault, lady Aeyrin. And by the Eight, please come back to Solitude whenever! The people would have me lynched if you didn't," Elisif giggled somewhat nervously.

Aeyrin nodded, but right now, she wanted nothing more than to be far away from this place.

She didn't even want to talk to Azshan. If she told him that Bishop was innocent, he wouldn't leave it be until he found out who did it. And if she didn't… well, she was rather fed up with the hate that he was spewing Bishop's way.

Going straight back to the man she loved was the most comforting idea right now.

…

"So… you have nothing. Absolutely nothing new to tell me?"

Elisif's gaze was piercing and angry. She knew. But she didn't say a thing.

Why? Didn't Aeyrin tell her that it was Casavir who did everything? Wasn't he going to be punished? Imprisoned? Banished? Or, at the very least, stripped of his rank and function? Wasn't she going to inform the Prelate?

"No, your majesty. Nothing. Bishop is still the most likely culprit, but we have no substantial evidence against him," Casavir shrugged uncertainly, bracing himself for the accusation that would come at any second. She may have only wanted to see him lie and squirm some more. He deserved it too.

"It matters not. Lady Aeyrin does not wish him prosecuted and she called it all a 'personal matter'. I wonder what that could mean…" Elisif narrowed her eyes at him.

There was so much disappointment in them. It was heartbreaking.

Why didn't Aeyrin just accuse him? It might have been easier to face the consequences like that…

"So… let me get this straight… if Bishop didn't poison her and the matter was 'personal', it would generally be easy to assume that you did, after the accusation we all heard, correct?" she spat at him derisively.

He nodded. There was no use arguing.

Better me than the others…

"So… allegedly, you're doing this to get rid of the man and get the woman… like from a theatre play…" she scoffed again. "Explain to me then, why would you advise me to pardon him when the bounty notice came?"

What could he say?

He still had no idea who sent the notice. Was it Azshan? Trying to get Bishop out of the way before he and the nobility devised the more elaborate plan? Or was it just a coincidence? Perhaps one of Bishop's enemies from his… colorful life has decided to make a move against him. And then the nobles used this opportunity to spread the rumors about him and Elisif. Anything was possible at that point.

But it hardly mattered. Casavir was there when it was delivered and Elisif entrusted him with its contents.

It was the one moment in all this he didn't have to think back on in shame.

"It was the right thing to do, your majesty."

She stared at him for what seemed like an eternally long time. The disappointment and sorrow was still palpable in her pale-blue eyes, but now it was mixed with disbelief and exasperation. She couldn't fathom why he would pardon the man for a real crime, ridiculous as it was, and frame him for a fabricated one.

It was understandable. None of this reflected well on him.

But what was one man's reputation when an entire nation was at stake? He knew how fast things like this got out of hand. And he knew how fragile the war effort was. He had no moves left.

This was his life now.

He would have to suffer seeing the disappointment in her eyes every time she spoke to him. And he would have to suffer the disdain palpable behind every word.

"Leave me, Sir Casavir. You have work to do. There is an angry mob of nobles which you need to deal with."

…

Even after the soldiers gave Aeyrin directions on where exactly they had led Bishop out of the Hold, it felt like she'd been searching for hours.

It was the middle of the night, practically morning already. And it was so hard to see in the darkness, especially since thick clouds were covering the moons and the starlight to guide her.

She was tired. She hasn't had a minute of rest ever since she woke up from her delirium.

But she didn't want to make camp without him.

She wanted to curl up to him, to have his arms embrace her tightly, to feel his form press against her. She wouldn't be able to sleep well without him anyway.

She whistled loudly one more time. Was it too much to hope for that he would hear her now? She's tried so many times already. She waited again. This was always the worst part – the waiting and then the disappointment.

But this time…

Something rustled through the bushes after several more minutes and then, within another second, Karnwyr jumped out of the nearby shrubbery, barking with excitement. He nearly toppled her as he jumped on his hind legs and pressed his paws against her.

She hugged him to herself lovingly in relief, ruffling his fur. She was so happy to see him. And she was especially happy that he didn't seem panicked or confused in any way – that would mean that Bishop was doing something stupid to get back to her and he had gotten himself hurt… or worse. Luckily, that wasn't the case.

Karnwyr barked at her encouragingly when she was done cuddling him, to instigate that she should follow him towards Bishop.

They weaved their way through the trees and shrubbery of northern Reach. It took rather longer than she hoped but, finally, she noticed a glimpse of fire in the distance.

She rushed after Karnwyr as she noticed Bishop sitting by the fire with his head resting in his hands in exhaustion. When she got close enough for him to notice, his head jerked up from his hands and his eyes widened in surprise.

"Ladyship?" he stood up hurriedly as she ran towards him before she fell into his embrace with palpable relief. "Fuck… You're here so soon. I had it all planned out already. I was gonna sneak to Dragon Bridge and steal some shitty commoner clothes…" he pressed her to himself desperately, despite the armor.

"Stop!" she giggled and she quickly shut him up with a long deep kiss. "No more stupid plans that get you arrested! Or killed!"

He shook his head with a smile while he placed a hand on her cheek as she nuzzled it affectionately. There was a hint of worry in his eyes as he spoke: "Sweetness… You didn't believe any of that shit, right? I mean… why the fuck would I…"

"Shh. Of course not…" she comforted him. Did he really worry about her believing all those rumors? As if she would ever believe something that stupid. She wasn't that naïve. But she understood his insecurity. Yet again, their stay in Solitude was nerve-racking, especially for him. She was delirious and asleep for the most part, at least. "And I come bearing gifts," she pecked him on the cheek with a sly wink before she disentangled herself from him.

She let her pack fall down on the ground and rummaged around in it hurriedly. She pulled out what looked like two pieces of parchment and she took each in one hand before she hid them both behind her back with a mischievous smile.

"Left or right?" she giggled again.

He chuckled at her antics and he pointed to her right arm. She promptly produced the familiar rolled up parchment with a neat red ribbon over it.

He knew that she'd fix things.

But, fuck, he needed to pretend like he didn't know what it was. She had no idea that he already possessed one of these. He took the parchment and he tentatively unrolled it, looking over its contents. The message was nearly identical to the previous one, except for some details.

"Thank you, princess. If it weren't for that fucking tin-head, none of this would have been necessary…" he growled angrily while he rolled the paper back up.

She nodded somberly.

Wait… did she just agree with him? She wasn't going to defend that fucker?!

"Ladyship, who did poison you?" his eyes narrowed dangerously. Suddenly he was pretty sure that he already knew the answer to that. There was sorrow and hurt in her eyes but she didn't talk. She only shook her head at him.

It was answer enough.

"Fucking tin-head! That's it! We're going back! I'm gonna make him suffer for this!" Bishop fumed as he shoved the paper into his pack angrily. He really did look like he was ready to head out back to Solitude, right that second.

"Bish, stop. It doesn't matter anymore. I'm… I should have believed you about him… but it doesn't matter anymore. He knows that I know and… we won't let him interfere with our lives again…" she gave him a somewhat encouraging smile, but there was still so much sadness in her eyes. It made him furious!

"That's right, we won't! He doesn't get to hurt you and get away with it! I'm gonna fucking end him for this!"

"Bishop… I think… I think he just wanted to hurt you…" she shook her head at him regretfully.

"You don't know that! Fuck! You were fucking unconscious! How do we know that that sick freak didn't…"

"Stop! Please... I don't want to think that, alright? I don't want to think about any of that… It's over… let's just… let's please move on…" she shook her head vehemently while her eyes still glittered in a painful display of a heartbreak.

Bishop always knew that the fucker would hurt her. One way or the other. He knew. He didn't believe even Casavir to be capable of something that depraved, not really. He still had that stupid delusion in his head that whatever he was doing was somehow 'righteous'. There was not much that he could tell himself that would make taking advantage of an unconscious girl was in any way 'righteous'. But just the thought that it was a possibility made Bishop's blood boil.

He wasn't sure that he could 'move on'.

But the look in her eyes made him strangely calm down. He just wanted to be there for her then and to chase away the sadness. Another confrontation would hardly make her feel better. It would only make him feel better.

He just nodded slowly. He would leave things alone now, for her sake. But eventually, one of these days, that fucking tin-head would get what's coming to him. He would make sure of it.

"What… what's in the other hand?" he sighed, inclining his head to her left arm.

"I'll… show you in a minute. It requires some explanation. And right now… I'm starving," she gave him a wry smile and she inclined her head towards the roaring fire. She wasn't in a mood to discuss more serious things for right then anyway. A little bit of a break would be welcome.

Bishop didn't even realize that he himself hasn't eaten practically the whole day. With everything going on in his head, he didn't even notice.

He nodded at her again, despite the curiosity, and he turned to find his pack and some supplies for a meal.

…

They cuddled by the fire lazily. Both of them were so exhausted, but neither of them was willing to go to sleep just yet. It felt like they needed to enjoy their time together a little more, with how often they've been forced apart in Solitude.

"So… with everything that's been going on… Windhelm, Winterhold… that… weird night in Dawnstar and now this… I realized that we have completely missed the Old Life celebrations. I honestly don't even remember where we were that day. Must have been somewhere on the road…" Aeyrin pondered idly after a while of pleasant silence.

"What? I've never celebrated that shit… people only get too plastered and too loud that day. It's a good thing we missed it…" Bishop chuckled while he leaned his head on hers gently.

"Well… I've always liked it. The idea of it, at least. Reflecting on the past, remembering it and… leaving it behind. Never forget but never dwell – that kind of thing," she sighed wistfully. "I never noticed the celebrations when I was a kid. But afterwards, in the temple, we've always honored these days. It was nice. I loved the concept… coming to terms with where your life was now, rather than dragging the past with you. It's not like a day of celebration can really help with that but… it was a… comforting thought…"

He stayed silent, only playing idly with a strand of her hair and watching the light of the fire color it with orange hue. It was a nice thought. If only it were that easy.

"I was thinking we could celebrate it now. Even though we missed the actual holiday…" she tilted her head back slightly to give him a curious look.

"I… guess… if you like. What would you want to do to celebrate that? 'Cause I'm not gonna pray or meditate with you," he chuckled at her.

She disentangled herself from him with a demure smile and she grabbed her pack promptly. It really looked like she had something specific in mind.

"As much as I would love to see it, there's no need for that. You can… you can decide however you want to deal with the past. You don't have to do anything if you don't want to…" she rummaged in the pack for a while, piquing his curiosity.

After a spell, she pulled out another piece of parchment – likely the other gift that she had stashed back before.

He recognized it instantly, and his easy smile vanished from his face within a second.

She unrolled the paper and instead of looking at him, she looked over the faces of his family for a while. She was studying it curiously, as if she hadn't seen it properly before. After a while, she handed the parchment to him with a somewhat reassuring smile.

"You don't have to talk about this, if you don't want to. I just thought… I don't know what I thought… just… you don't have to hide these things from me. We can… we can deal with things like that together."

He looked at her encouraging smile somewhat desperately.

If only it were that simple, sweetness.

"If you had told me, we could have asked for this right away. Elisif is a good woman, she wouldn't have persecuted you for something your… clan… I guess… dragged you into when you were just a kid…" she tried to sound reassuring again. Unfortunately, it had quite the opposite impact.

"See… this is why, princess. You want to fix this for me…" he sighed. He was getting rather sick of seeing Torban's face on the parchment from the corner of his eye.

"Don't you?" she looked at him in confusion. It was a valid question, if only everything could be fixed as easily as this was.

"It's not that simple… do you know how fucking lucky this was? Do you think that you always just stumble upon someone like Elisif whenever you need to? Sweetheart, there's one just like this for the Rift, another one for Falkreath and a third for Whiterun. You want to ask a Stormcloak supporter for help with this? Or the Guild? If you drudge up the past, you're only making it come after you and bite you…"

She looked at him in surprise before she peered back down on the parchment, as if in realization, while she mouthed the name 'Thrice-Banished' silently. She stopped herself, after a second, and gave him a confused look. Rift, Whiterun, Falkreath and Haafingar? That was four, right? Not to mention the banishment from Skyrim altogether… that might count as fifth.

"The name was coined before the Solitude thing," he scoffed when he noticed her confusion. "Anyway… it's not worth it, princess. Even Elisif asked me not to try and get pardoned elsewhere and to keep all this a secret. People were robbed, sometimes much worse. You think that if anyone has heard of this, they wouldn't demand my head?"

"I… I didn't think of that… I just thought…" she was still looking over the parchment nervously.

"I know that you just want to help but… sometimes… sometimes it just might make everything worse…" he said somberly. It was the best explanation that he could give her. The only one that he had. He couldn't tell her about the much worse secrets of his past which he was protecting her from. Delving into any of this, trying to get rid of the bounties, it might have gotten someone else's attention too. Mercer knew about them and Thorn still thought of them as his fucking contingency plan, if his alliances ever fell through and he needed some funds. It was much safer to leave this be. Nobody really remembered these now anyway… almost nobody.

She nodded slowly, sadly, as if something had been taken away from her. She looked so eager and happy to help him, only to have her idealism crushed. He hated that he was the one doing it to her. She usually didn't let him talk her out of things, but this time, she had to. This time she wasn't risking her own neck – she was risking his.

As far as she knew.

"Elisif gave this to me. She thought that I knew and… when it was obvious that I didn't, she just gave it to me to put an end to all this. To keep all the convictions against you behind her and to… clean the slate."

"Old Life?" he scoffed.

"I guess… I promise, I won't try to fix this. But… I hate to think that you can't talk to me about these things because of… because of how I am…"

Fuck, please, don't blame yourself.

Those damn sad eyes…

"That's not it, sweetness. I just… I just don't like thinking about this shit… and I never talk about this shit. I didn't even tell Jules! He fucking pried the story off of some bandits that we were working with," Bishop scoffed again with a disgruntled shake of his head.

"So… he's not in here?" Aeyrin looked over the small portraits of the three children curiously. She recognized Bishop, but only barely – he must have been so young there… four or five maybe? The two others looked a little older perhaps.

"He wasn't born yet – it was only after we left Skyrim… or were forced to leave. It was just the five of us then… well, six, I guess, but no one actually bothered to put a kid that small on the poster… and I guess, by this time, the seventh was on the way already," he smirked while he rolled his eyes exaggeratedly.

"Would you… tell me something about them? You know… Old Life and all?" she gave him an innocent look with some trepidation. She was obviously eager to take the opportunity and sate her curiosity just then.

Well… it wasn't a bad sentiment. What was it that she said? 'Never forget but never dwell'? There was no forgetting anyway and he would welcome the chance to give the dwelling some rest. Maybe talking about some of it would help a little. It did help when he told her about Jules. It was strangely cathartic.

"That's Jack and Aces. They were both older than me. The kid was my younger sister Kari and my brother Ost was born after the banishments. But those two didn't have the same father. Mother had four more kids after that. Jules was the first after we left Skyrim."

"Not with your father?" she asked curiously while her eyes kept scanning the pictures of the two Nord parents – Torban and Rina.

"No…" he shook his head without elaborating further. She remembered him mentioning that Jules was half-Khajiit, perhaps the others were too? Would that mean that all of them succumbed to the same 'illness'? It would definitely explain why Bishop was so reluctant to talk about them.

"Why? Did something happen to him?" she gave him another curious look.

Bishop snorted in response. Oh something happened alright. Something that should have happened a lot sooner…

"Eventually. But that wasn't the reason. Mother was just a properly 'pious' woman, you know? Spreading Mara's 'love' wherever she could," he scoffed in disgust. "She was determined to have one of each, so she started collecting lovers of different races. I don't know why the fuck she got something so idiotic into her head. But… it's not like she was ever all there with all that Maran crap…"

Oh…

It did explain his disdain for religion. Aeyrin was glad that he was ever able to get over it with her around. It was understandable now, that he had tried to constantly convince her of the pointlessness of her pilgrimage before and how disdainful he sounded whenever she ascribed some spiritual purpose to things. At least he stopped doing that for the most part now.

"What… what happened to your father?" she asked again, determined to sate her curiosity as much as he would allow.

"Dead. Thank the fucking Gods for that…" Bishop growled hatefully. He wasn't, by far, that disdainful when he was talking about his siblings. His parents must have left him with a lot of bad memories.

She knew all about that.

She looked over his father's image again curiously. He was sneering. It was strange that a man was sneering so much the portraitist deemed it appropriate to depict him like that. Maybe it was just supposed to appear menacing to everyone, to vilify the man himself. Although… it sounded like he didn't need that much vilification.

"Please, don't fucking say it…" Bishop groaned exasperatedly.

"Say what?"

"That… that I look like him…" he growled in between his gritted teeth so quietly that she had barely heard it.

"I don't think that you do…" she creased her brows while she peered at the picture intently. She did notice it before, they had very similar physical features, but there was just something… different about them. She couldn't exactly claim that they looked alike.

"I think it's your eyes… there's… kindness in them…" she looked back at Bishop with a gentle smile on her lips.

"'Kindness'?! Yeah right…" he scoffed, laughing a little, but it didn't sound cheerful at all. Nobody has certainly ever accused him of that before.

"I see it…" she shrugged as she placed the poster onto the ground. She didn't want to look at it anymore. She only wanted to look at him.

His expression melted as a grateful and loving smile appeared on his lips. He leaned to kiss her gently and his hand moved to stroke her cheek in slow motions. She quickly returned back into his embrace to cuddle up in his arms, nuzzling her face into his neck.

'Coming to terms with where your life was now rather than dragging the past with you.'

He had no trouble coming to terms with his life now. This was exactly where he wanted to be. All the shit happening around them, all the troubles they got into… none of it mattered. Not as long as he was with her.

He reached out for the bounty notice to look it over one last time.

"To Old Life then," he smiled before he tossed it right into the flames.

His hand returned to stroke her hair instantly and he pressed her closer into his embrace while they watched the images of the poster dissolve into the fire in silence.

That was so fucking satisfying to watch.

"You never talked about your mother…" he pondered after a while, when the poster was finally burned completely to ashes. It was only a distant memory now. At least until someone decided to drudge up the past again. But, hopefully, it would stay this way for a while yet.

"There's not much to say… I never knew her," Aeyrin shrugged. Surprisingly, there wasn't sadness in her voice. She seemed rather disinterested in the fact.

Good for her. What use were shitty 'families' like theirs anyway? There was only pain, abuse and bad memories.

"I asked about her, of course. Father told me that she was a beautiful Bosmer princess who fell in love with him on her diplomatic visit. But she had many enemies and she didn't want to risk my safety. So she left me with father and returned to her forest kingdom…" Aeyrin sighed wistfully.

Bishop wasn't really sure what to say to that.

She didn't really believe that, did she?

"And then he got off his high and he went into withdrawal. He yelled at me that she was the only one who understood him and that I killed her. That I was supposed to die instead of her… I suspect that was the true version… to him, at least," she scoffed bitterly, shaking her head.

Bishop wondered whether she needed reassuring. Whether he should tell her that she should disregard that wretch's ravings. Whether he should tell her that if she died instead of her, his life would remain as empty as it's always been after and he wouldn't have even realized it.

But he suspected that she heard all the consolations at the temple already.

"You got a good family, in the end," he squeezed her closer to himself.

One that actually seemed to have deserved someone like her, at least from what she told Bishop about them.

"I feel like I got a second one here…" she tilted her head up to look at him with those gorgeous black eyes. He could have drowned in them.

He bent down to kiss her and he pressed her into an even tighter embrace.

"To the New Life, love."