Astrid closes her eyes as Arnbjorn's head rolls down the steps.
She became a warrior and wife but never a mother. That dream was taken from her by a Thalmor and his scalpel.
A hand enfolds hers and she looks at Sithis. "I wanted to pull Nocturnal into the Void after she banished the Dark Sister from my first Champion, Sapphire. But I just love the irony of my new Champion hiding within the Child of Akatosh. The Champion of Sithis will kill them all to claim their place in the Void after I destroyed Munds."
Sithis lays his hand against her cheek, "I have not forsaken you, you will hold a child against your breast soon, as the next Night Mother after I destroyed Mundus."
She turns when her soulmate calls her name. He shifts into his beast staring at the Everlasting Hunting Ground with Hircine waiting at the entrance of the realm. Hircine speaks to the beast and point his hand away from the grassland at his back. A dark gate opens to reveal swirling grey clouds and a red horizon, the beast looks a final time over his shoulder at Astrid and howls before entering the forsaken Outer Realm of Oblivion.
Astrid hears the voices of her fellow Darks Sisters and Brothers calling to her and follows their voices into the Void.
To be continued in Book 2 - Child of Akatosh