I planned to have had this done before the end of the weekend, but playing D&D over the course of the whole weekend made it difficult to focus on. That and other distractions. But, I told myself today I was going to post this and by golly I did.

Hope you enjoy! :)

"I didn't mean to strike her; Harbinger! It was the blood." Vilkas pleaded as he leaned forward and set his head down in his hands over the table. He was in clear distress. He ran his hands back through the his hair and blew out a gust of wind from his chest. He tapped his foot against the ground as he had been doing since he and Kodlak came inside after he attacked Annie. His head achingly throbbed and all he could think of was someone slamming a door open and shut over and over again; louder and louder each time. His body hurt all over like he had been carrying a great weight in his arms and on his back until he could no longer hold it, and then carried it some more. "I still hear the call of the blood." Vilkas said keeping his head down with his hair gripped in his hands.

Silently, Kodlak nodded in full understanding to the problem at reared itself. It should have been obvious to him for he had felt the same when he started ignoring 'the blood' as he grew older and his perceptions shifted. Difficult as it was, it was not an impossible obstacle. Like any junkie to his addiction, the will power of the individual was the stepping stone to freedom. Body aches and throbbing heads were painful and tempted them to answer for their negligence; but Kodlak had no doubts that Vilkas will overcome.

He looked at the boy with a sympathetic look and a small smile of admiration. He reached over the table and took Vilkas's hand on his own and squeezed it with reassurance. He wasn't going bore him with rhetoric and things that could be common place. Something did need to be said however to ease the young warrior.

After his incident in the yard, Vilkas marched immediately to be alone for a little while and Kodlak had allowed that time to be had so he would be in better spirits to talk. When the time had come, Kodlak insisted that they talk privately in his study that sat just outside of his personal quarters if only to comfort Vilkas and insure that it was just he and him that were listening and no one else.

"We all do. It is our burden to bear. But, we can overcome, Vilkas."

Pulling his hand back; Vilkas lifted his head up and wiped his hands across his head then down his face - taking a deep breath then blowing it out. Kodlak saw clearly how haggard the ordeal is making him. Sleeplessness was common to those with 'the blood' but you got used to it, but going the symptoms of withdrawal exacerbated that condition. "You have my brother and I, obviously. But I don't know if the rest will go along quite so easily."

"Leave that to me." Kodlak said reassuringly. "Right now, however - I think you have something else that you should be thinking about. And, that's how you're going to make it up to Aloriander for assaulting her as you did."

"Harbinger; with all due respect - you know that I have never been good at that sort of thing."

"I am more than well aware, lad. But, I am confident that you will figure something out. Remember the shortest fence is the easiest to get across."

Vilkas meditated on his words briefly before he understood what he implied. "Your wisdom surely knows no bounds." He said with a lightened smirk.

With a small wave of his hand and a shrug of his shoulders, Kodlak said, "Age changes the hair, but not always the mind." They both laughed.

Now that he was in a lighter mood, Vilkas went about the rest of the day in a more expected fashion. Still no new jobs came in which was a great shame for the winter months were slow months. Instead, Vilkas focused on finding more constructive and productive ways to distract himself from the burdens that polluted his mind. Normally he would seek his brother, but Farkas was engaging himself with Annie, who appeared more energetic now than she did when she had arrived. Acting more now like she had when he first met her in Arcadia's Cauldron. Her sudden mood shifts throughout the span of one day, Vilkas could not tell if he would describe as worrisome, or troublesome, but it did appear that whatever conversation that Farkas and Annie were sharing was a casually cheerful one.

It didn't seem right to Vilkas that he could try and make it up to Annie for she probably didn't want him near her as much as he didn't want her near himself and he hadn't a proper apology in mind and something as simple as, 'I'm sorry', he didn't think was going to be enough. He settled with going out into the court yard to clear his mind and rest his body for the remainder of the day before night stole over the horizon.

Dinner was made and The Companions broke their bread in the same manner as they did every night with celebration and merriment which included loud talking, lots of laughter, food to enjoy and drinks to be imbibed. Drinking was not an essential skill to have to be a Companion, but it was one they all took pride in and Annie had demonstrated that she had that potential for she and Farkas had begun to drink competitively. Mug after mug they drank. Farkas sitting still every time before he slammed his mug on the table while Annie as she reached the end of her drink would stand up and tilt her head back before she did the same.

Vilkas was marked impressed by the elf's ability to drink like a Nord. It was difficult to imagine an Altmer, no matter their status in life, partaking in such activities.

After a fit of laughter, Ria turned to Annie and asked, "So Annie what brings you to us?" Vilkas leaned forward on the table with his fist in his hand hanging over his face inquisitively.

Annie stopped mid-drink with inflated cheeks then looked at Farkas who looked back at her. She swallowed her beverage with an audible gulp followed by a loud belch then said, "Neces - 'hic'!" Annie pounded on her chest with her fist and belched again but silently this time. "Necessity." She repeated.

"Oh, come on!" Ria insisted. "Tell us about yourself."

Annie scratched her head in irritation before she answered. "Well…" She looked down her mug and swirled the mead inside a bit and said, "I'm 'hic' absurd."

"Absurd?" Ria repeated. "What's that supposed to mean?"

"Sorry." Annie closed her eyes then rubbed them. She turned in her chair then leaned back to lay back against Farkas's arm, knowing that he would let her do this. "I meant absorbed." Annie said with an expression of complete contentment with her eyes closed and a floating smile on her face. "Absorbed with this!" She threw her arm out to gesture to the whole hall. "The comradery!" Annie shot forward in her seat just inches from Ria's face. Annie's eyes were wide and she carried a wide grin. "I haven't seen the likes of something like this in a long, 'hic' time."

"How long is a long time?" Vilkas asked with genuine curiosity though, it could have been because he himself had a few drinks in him. "Please enthrall us with you story."

"Hmmm…" Annie looked up in contemplation and rubbed her hand against her chin. "Well, not since I was attending the College of Winterhold to be sure. But, I never was good at fitting in with that lot. They were too moronic for me. Plus, I hadn't the time or need for friends which I had only one of."

"Is that where you trained to be an alchemist?" Vilkas asked.

"Not in the since that you think." Annie replied. "Is was there that I received my training, yes. But, I did not learn from a class or the like. I learned to be an alchemist from my friend who was far experienced than I at the time. He was a strange man, even by Khajiit standards. Had this odd obsession with snowberries for some reason." Annie spoke the latter half in more of rhetorical mumble as she spoke while again looking into her unfinished mug of mead and swirling it around.

"That reminds me!" Vilkas exclaimed holding up his index finger. "How did your potion work? The one you were working on before you arrived."

"Ugh!" Annie rolled her eyes and tilted her head off to the side. "It was a failure! The moment my compound mixed with the samples that were taken from the Gildergreen itself they corroded as if I had instead poured acid on them."

"That is unfortunate." Vilkas said dryly.

"Yes well, despite the frustrating failure that it was - my compound was a harmony of alchemical precision." There was a small pause. "Oh, look at that!" Annie hit her head with the heal of her palm. "I got so distracted I forgot about our game, Farkas! Would care to continue? I still have a ways to go."

"Why not?" Farkas replied with a grin and they continued drinking throughout the night forgetting about the conversation entirely.

As was common, Vilkas turned in before everybody else in Jorrvaskr other than Kodlak and his brother who wouldn't be far behind. When he stepped through the threshold of his bedroom he suddenly felt the weight of fatigue upon his body and wanted nothing more than to forgo taking his armor off and just fall face down into his bed. But his need for a comfortable sleep was greater than his will. Slowly but effectively, even while slightly drunk, he removed the pieces of his armor and set them in his wardrobe.

Sleep would not come easily, that he was well aware and it was all thinks to 'the blood' but drinking always helped him as he would fall asleep quicker than usual.

He sat down on his bed, rubbed his face and moved his body under his blankets before blowing out the candles and allowing his heavy eyes to finally close. He would have no dreams that night.

Days went by with no jobs to be seen. Unexpectedly to Vilkas, Annie was not a difficult person to live with. She was usually quiet in her ways, hardly making the time to say more than two words to anybody except for Farkas who had become a fast friend to her. Over the course of time, Vilkas had observed her habitual nature. She spent most of the daylight outside of Jorrvaskr doing whatever came into her mind whether it was spending the entire day at Arcadia's Cauldron or taking long and exhausting walks around the city or outside the city walls. Where she would go, no one yet knew. When she came across something that truly stimulated her mind, nothing could exceed the energy she had when such a fit came upon her.

All these things Vilkas came to know as the things that made Annie who she was but, one of her more interesting and yet oddest habits was sitting on a bench where she would lay upon it for hours with her hands over her belly, her ankles crossed and not utter a single word or move a single muscle. It was also when Annie would do this that Vilkas too notice of a dreamy, vacant expression in her eyes much like when she and him dueled in the yard.

Vilkas kept quiet about how much Annie intrigued him and dared not confess it to anyone, not even Farkas or Kodlak. There was something about her that he couldn't escape from no matter how much he wanted to. Why was she here and what did she want? She gave no hint as to what her desires were and he doubted that they had anything to do with being a Companion do to her obvious detached nature. He endeavored to break through the reticence she so strongly held when it came to most anything involving herself when he found the timing appropriate. Anything she did offer on the subject was not inherently helpful either for they were mostly idle details.

Again this struck him as odd because for as intelligent as she appeared to be, she made no points of anything she had accomplished in her chosen fields from the arcane to her alchemical practice.

These things that he thought about soon became too much for him and he needed to distract himself and so he picked a book from his personal collection and sat in the main hall to read it. That also happened to be where Annie was doing the same thing over the dining table while she also snacked on a sweet roll. Slowly picking off small pieces while she read. Her love of sweets seemed to be the only habit that Annie shared with most other women that he knew.

Old Vignar-Gray Mane also happened to be in the room. Annie was unaware of Vignar's prejudice toward her people, and the Companions all believed in good faith that Vignar would show their new initiate some modicum of respect like he had done for Athis when he first joined. Usually Vignar kept his distance from Annie as casually as he could achieve and would only silently judge her through darkened glares when he knew that Annie wasn't paying attention, but today was a different day.

Vilkas was already nose deep in his book when he heard Vignar snidely say, "It's difficult to imagine a High Elf living among such simple folk."

Annie looked up from her book, but did not turn to look at Vignar, choosing instead to keep her eyes straight. She took a deep breath through the nose, turned her eyes back to her book then said, "Yes, I am well aware that my people do not tend to roam in these parts of Skyrim." Vilkas slowly lowered his book so he could peek over and carefully watch without being noticed.

"So one can only imagine what one is doing here now. Especially a High Elf who practices magic."

Annie casually placed a bookmark inside her book then closed it calmly. She turned in her seat to face Vignar. She crossed one leg over the other, clasped her hands over her lap, and then coughed to clear her throat. "Is there a problem?"

"Indeed there is." Vignar growled. "You are the problem. You damned elves come into our home. You kill our people, take them from their homes and ruin families. Try and tell us who we can or cannot worship." Annie sat there in complete indifference. "And, you have the gull to walk into our city and claim yourself a Companion! Some nerve. I bet you're just some spy sent by the Aldmeri Dominion. Sent here to spread nothing but deception and lies! I tell you, I cannot wait to see Ulfric sit on the throne so that he sends you all to Oblivion."

Annie laughed then stood. She straightened out her robes then said, "Vignar is it? Listen Vignar. Have you ever heard of the Markarth incident? No? That doesn't surprise me since most who know about it don't like to talk about it, but allow me to enlighten you on the subject. Those of you who support the Stormcloaks so passionately preach about religious freedom and maintaining your homelands. That is admirable and ideas that I sympathize with but, are you aware that 'Nords' under 'Ulfrics' command systematically slaughtered and drove away the naive peoples of The Reach for the same reasons you despise my people for?"

"You lie!" She shouted. He tried to make himself as intimidating as he could but Annie stood calm and unaffected as ever. He found her patronizing smirk all the more enraging.

"Oh, no it's true. Very true. Just ask the Foresworn, they'll tell you. Assuming they don't kill you first. But, would you like to know the main reason why the Nords attacked them? What's the old saying? Blood and Silver run through Markarth." Vignar's face turned red as blood rushed to his face and his body shook with subdued rage. "For that the Foresworn were driven from their homes by the Nords and the Silver-Bloods are just soaking it all in like a sponge in the water. So I ask you Vignar - who's the real problem?"

Taking slow, deliberate steps towards Annie with an intense glare, Vignar stood face to face with her, obtruding his finger in her face and said in a dark tone, "Just you mind your back, Elf," and marched towards the front doors of Jorrvaskr with tightly held fists. It was now snowing outside and the winds were unyielding. When Vignar opened the doors to leave, a cool just of wind pushed its way inside and Annie felt the cold slither around and move up her legs. Vignar slammed the doors as he left.

Shaking her head, Annie rolled her eyes and chuckled before sitting down to return to her book and sweet role. She noticed Vilkas looking at her passed his book and so she said, "What did I do to upset you now?"

Vilkas snapped his book shut, crossed one leg over the other, and scratched his head. "It's not that I am upset with you. It's the subject of politics. I personally wouldn't mind them if I thought what they pertained to was worth a sweat, but in this instant I do not. And nor would anybody else."

"So you'd rather I not speak of it?" She asked.

"That would be preferred. For all us." Annie huffed then rolled her eyes. Vilkas got up from his chair then moved to sit right next to her at the table. "Listen Annie. I do not know you and I do not care if I ever do or not…"

"The feeling is mutual." She said keeping her eyes on her book.

"But! Politics are not important to us. We don't care for them; we don't want them. They have no place in Jorrvaskr."

Annie silently thought of an appropriate response. "If it pleases you; I will keep such talks outside."

"Thank you." He said then returned to his original seat.

Reading proved to be a fruitless endeavor after Annie's incident with Vignar and he went back to his room where upon entering he indiscriminately tossed his book in some vague corner and plopped down on his bed in contemplation. One arm rested over his chest and the other was over his forehead. Somewhere deep down inside of his mind he felt that somehow Annie was the catalyst for some unforeseen happenings that were about to occur that felt most unsavory.

He pondered over her once again and tried to draw whatever deductions he could from it. Annie obviously was an educated person. Perhaps, potentially one of the most educated people that he has ever met. She had said when he first met her that she had intimate knowledge of alchemy, but what of the arcane arts? She carried a staff but had yet made no display of that field. Not that it was exactly accepted to use magic within the city walls, but she hadn't made even the tiniest of harmless demonstrations. She was well read in literature and endeavored to engage in the frustrating matter that was politics. All of that together made Annie what exactly? Aside from being a highly reserved individual with a hyper attentive mind? Vilkas didn't know but it forced him to question why she was really there; in Jorrvaskr. There surely must be an underlying intention that he was not seeing that only Annie knew about.

His thoughts became to cluttered and so he took a seat at his personal desk, grabbed his journal and tore a page out to record what he could gather of the Altmer that so persistently resided in his mind. Where to start was a more complicated matter than he would have believed before he began so he started with what first came to mind.

Friends/relationships - Two friends; Farkas and a nameless Khajiit that she had mentioned one thus far. Has made no mention of any romantic relationships she has had.

Family - Unknown thus far. Most likely will avoid question if asked.

Origins - Unknown if born in Skyrim or anywhere else on the continent. Unknown if born on The Summerset Isles.

Aedra/Daedra/Other - unknown thus far. Religion is a complicated or (most likely) an irrelevant matter. Beliefs may be a matter of what's convenient and inconvenient.

Politics - Seems to dabble. But not enough is known if she favors the The Empire or The Stormcloaks. Politics may be a matter of simple interest rather than ideological allegiance.

Education - Based on the average seen throughout Skyrim, seems to have a highly above average education. Claims to have attended the College of Winterhold at some earlier time. Why did she leave?

Occupation/Hobbies - Polymath. Has a love for alchemy and magic, but displays competent hand to hand fighting skills. Peak skills yet unknown. Her hobbies and profession seem intimately interconnected.

Vilkas leaned back in his chair, holding the sheet of paper close to his face. He wanted to laugh himself silly for he felt his intrigue towards Annie was absurd. He stood from his seat and with the sheet of paper still in his hands went to a lit candle where he held the paper over it but stopped just short enough not to burn it. He held it over the small flame for just a minute before pulling his arm back and instead set the sheet of paper inside of his journal where he would build upon his notes later.

He huffed out a sigh and said out loud to nothing but the emptiness of his bedroom, "I do not know what your motivations are An"Aloriander. But, I beg that you do not bring destruction upon us."

I believe this chapter thus far has undergone the most changes compared to the previous two. Either it was re-writing some things are adding additional details because I felt they would fit. I'm not complaining mind you because I liked the changes I made for the most part.

I am hoping to have the next chapter up soon. Until then - Cheers! :)