Author's note:

First things first, a huge thank you to all those who are reading/favoriting/following this story. Also, I apologize for spamming your mailbox with lots of false notifications (I've finally taken care of the mistakes pointed out by Guest). Will you ever forgive me? (*puppy eyes*)

As usual, I send a huge thank you to the wonderful Elspeth. I'm glad to know that my dialogue-filled chapters aren't as boring as I fear them to be, and I'm happy to know that I've managed to build up some expectations for the future :) Also, I send a big grazie to the amazing Alicesdream. It was great to receive a review in Italian!

Back to business: I know that this chapter is painfully short, but it marks a turning point in the story and a little break from my usual style. Hence, I've decided to post it on its own.

There's a warning for angst.

Just like Agda had predicted, over the course of the following hours Steinarius started feeling really, really bad.

Everything began with violent coughs that forced the Imperial to bid farewell to the little food he had managed to crunch on the previous day. It then continued with a throbbing headache that forced him to lay down and cover his face with his hands, so that the colors of the surrounding world would finally stop hurting his eyes. At last, Steinarius started feeling feverish, a fact that deeply worried him – as a werewolf, he was supposed to be completely immune to diseases.

Worried by the sudden aggravation of his conditions, Agda tried to help her friend by icing his forehead with a damp cloth, by covering his body with warm furs, by using her magicka to heal his wounds. At first Steinarius thanked her with sporadic smiles and reassuring words, but then he fell into a dull and silent world where pain and distress seemed to reign over everything else. The Imperial felt as though his blood had been replaced by a hot fire that was burning him from the inside, thus bringing a layer of sweat all over his body. He often tried to voice his discomfort and open his eyes, but he was too weak even to fulfill those simple actions.

All of a sudden, Steinarius heard two people talking next to him. Despite his efforts, he couldn't make out the words they were exchanging.

Probably alerted by the way his muscles were twitching under his skin, one of the strangers approached him and laid a reassuring hand on his shoulder.

"We're getting you to Riverwood, boy", Steinarius heard a gruff voice say. "Everything will be alright".

The Imperial would have begged to differ, but he was too sick to talk. A second later Steinarius felt someone slowly caress his forehead, his cheeks, his hair, but he definitely wasn't in the right mood to enjoy those attentions.

As the time went by, the Dragonborn's conditions got even worse. Steinarius could hear someone scream, but he didn't know whether the voice he was hearing was his own or someone else's. He opened his eyes, but was always greeted by a thick darkness and a sharp pain in his head. He tried to move, but he felt as though he was falling down an endless cliff. At a certain point, he also started suffering from vivid hallucinations that led him to relive different moments of his life.

At first Steinarius firmly believed that he was back in Solitude, eating sweet rolls with Thorygg and exchanging comments about the many weird people who lived at court. A second later he was a teenager riding a black horse along the snowy coast of Hjaalmarch, while his father screamed for him to slow down. Steinarius also saw himself as a young boy who had just joined the Companions - he remembered the hunts with Vilkas and Farkas, the calm winter nights in the mead hall of Jorrvaskr, a few of the many girls he had bedded at the time. At last, Steinarius remebered her.

For a few glorious moments, the hallucinations led him to believe that he was in a meadow near Rorikstead. Vigdis was laying on her back, her black eyes fixed on the sky and her chest rising and falling in time with her breaths. Steinarius slowly kissed her, caressed her, whispered tender words of love against her lips as he gently moved inside her. When Vigdis smiled back at him, the Imperial felt like the happiest man on Nirn.

Steinarius later remembered the way Vigdis had shyly, knowingly smiled all those years ago, as she'd laid his hand over her belly and told him that they were about to become a family. Then, everything changed.

Steinarius was now in the Temple of Kynareth, arguing with a healer who wouldn't allow him into the room where his woman was desperately fighting for her life. The Imperial remembered the blood, the pain, the way Vigdis was crying as the healers were trying to save her and their baby. Steinarius remembered a little bundle of blankets being shoved into his arms, he remembered Danica Pure Spring saying how sorry she was for the way his life had suddenly fallen apart, then he remembered crying on someone's shoulders for what felt like years. He also remembered Vigdis' ruined armor, her bloodied sword, her poor, broken body. At last, Steinarius remembered the way he'd punched Vilkas in the face, the rage he'd felt as he'd left Jorrvaskr, the violent argument he'd had with Kodlak and the others.

Those horrible scenes replayed in Steinarius' minds for what felt like years.

Every time Danica shoved the bundle of blankets into his arms, the Imperial hoped for a different ending. Unfortunately, his prayers and protests were always in vain.

Steinarius didn't know how long the poison ran through his veins.

When the haze that covered his mind eventually began to fade, the Imperial felt clean sheets neatly tucked around his body, a cold cloth pressed against his forehead, a warm hand gently squeezing his own. He tried to talk, but a young woman immediately hushed him.

"It's almost over, Steinarius", the woman whispered in his ear. "It's almost over. We'll get you through this, I promise you we will".

Steinarius was comforted by the reassuring tone the woman had used. Over the following hours, the Imperial realized that that very same woman was tenderly stroking his cheeks, slowly changing his bandages, carefully using a spell to decrease the burning in his veins and clean his skin from the sweat.

As he realized that, Steinarius suddenly felt the ridiculous urge to smile. There was only one person who could take care of him in such a loving and tender way, and that person was his favorite shield-sister, his soon-to-be-wife, the mother of his child.

It looked as though the Divines had finally reunited him with Vigdis.

When the poison was finally cleansed from his body, Steinarius eventually managed to open his eyes. He took in the sight of a cozy room, then he saw a woman coming towards him. At that point, the Imperial smiled - those scenes in the Temple of Kynareth had probably been just another nightmare.

A few minutes before regaining consciousness, Steinarius had dreamed of his house in Whiterun, of his baby boy asleep in his cradle, of his newly-wed wife kissing him tenderly on the lips. He was now looking forward to seeing Vigdis' smile, to feeling her long silken hair on his skin, to drowning in her wonderful black eyes. Nonetheless, Steinarius' return to life was greeted by two deep, brown eyes, equally beautiful but so terribly different from his lover's dark irises.

As he recognized Agda, the Dragonborn felt his heart shatter in a thousand pieces.

He had lost his family once again.