"I never liked Olda." Lami said on the occasion of Horgeir's second visit in as many weeks. "A more grasping, spiteful woman never drew breath. I always wondered why Horgeir stayed with her."

It was a statement not directed to Narissa specifically, Lami's eyes and attention had returned to her work after only a brief glance out the window at Horgeir's arrival in Morthal. But, aside from Lami, it was only Nari and Meeko present in the apothecary, and Meeko simply lay where he was by the hearth, his eyes moving from one woman to the other. He had learned some time ago that when both women stood at that particular work bench it meant a long stretch of neglect for him. He consoled himself with a leisurely stretch and a pronounced yawn before flopping over onto his side with a dramatic exhalation of breath.

As statements went it was also not quite an unexpected bolt out of the clear blue sky. Lami had eyes to match her wit and her skill, and she could not but notice the attachment between her brother-in-law and her employee, her employee who also happened to be her lodger, since Narissa was living above the apothecary shop when she was not working within the shop itself.

Horgeir's prediction had proved accurate, as accurate as his explanation of her situation was effective.

"Her home was destroyed, and her family killed, by brigands." Horgeir had explained to his brother while Lami looked suspiciously at the woman dressed in dark grey robes embroidered with dark green thread in an elegant pattern that may have held some meaning to the Khajiit brothers who had sold it, as they had sold all of Nari's other possessions, to Horgeir. It was a pattern that was repeated in dark grey thread on her warm dark green cloak that accented her robes perfectly.

Lami's opinion of Horgeir's description of her as The most skilled alchemist and thaumaturgist in Haafingar stayed behind her closed lips, but her body language did not bode well for that opinion. Her body language, and her demeanor in general, improved markedly upon her inspection of the contents of Nari's potion case. And, as both Lami and her establishment resided in Hjaalmarch rather than Haafingar, it seemed that she felt in no way obliged to contest the title that Horgeir had installed upon Nari.

Jorgen simply waited until his wife had finished her inspection before she looked at him and nodded. His smile as he turned to look at his not quite twin brother was mirrored back to him before he turned and opened the apothecary door and spoke to another set of brothers.

"You may carry everything up to the second floor." Jorgen said to the two waiting Khajiit.

"Your wish is Nabil's command." The slightly taller of the Khajiit brothers answered as his face broke into it's own smile, causing the many rings in both his ears to play their melody before he and his brother Nader began unloading all of Nari's worldly possessions, which required Meeko to scamper off of the mattress that sat on top of those possessions where they sat in the back of Nabil's cart.

"Did you think we could not provide a mattress?" Jorgen asked his brother as he observed the two traders moving Nari's belongings from the cart to the upper floor of the building that was now Narissa's home as well as her place of employment.

"It is a perfectly good mattress, and very comfortable." Horgeir replied. "It would be a shame to let it go to waste."

Horgeir's reply drew a set of prominently raised eyebrows from his brother, but no more.

In the month since Narissa had settled in Morthal she had gained a well deserved reputation for excellence, compassion and discretion. And the skills required to master the subtleties of thaumaturgy, so unlike the brute force approach employed in alteration and conjuration, and in particular Nari's ability to combine those subtle skills with her skills in alchemy, quickly gained Narissa a loyal following of clients and customers in Morthal and Hjaalmarch, as well as occasional patients from The Pale and Heljarchen.

"It is to everyone's benefit." Lami had said when Narissa felt the need to apologize for the number of customers who entered Lami's shop and asked for Nari by name. "My ledger benefits from your skill, as does my customers health."

It was on the day of Horgeir's visit that one of Narissa's regular clients asked for her.

"We are returning to Heljarchen, and I wanted to convey my gratitude to you, dear child. My joints have not felt so free of pain since I was your age." Argi Farseer said before she looked at Lami "Have a care, Lami, or I will steal her out from under you very nose. You must ask my sister to post a guard on her if you wish to keep her."

"I will take up that task, good lady." Horgeir said as he stood beside Narissa. "I will swear to the Divines to never let her out of my sight."

"I have no doubt that you would be fateful to your charge." Argi replied with a smile. "Were my own husband still alive and present here now I am sure he would make just such an offer."

The silence that accompanied her departure was somewhat awkward.

Horgeir's visits never lasted long. Narissa expected nothing else; Horgeir had a wife and a business in Dragon's Bridge and, as much as they cared for each other, both of them realized that their future paths lay in different directions. Nari had few friends besides Lami and Jorgen, though her regular clients and patients came close to that mark. It would be odd if they did not: Nari knew so much about them that they seemed in some ways to be part of her family. But the distance that she was forced to keep from them, truly from everyone in Morthal, to protect the more troublesome details of her life from public view meant that she spent a good portion of her time alone.

So it was a cause for joy when the temperate winter gave way and began to show signs of an early spring. Nari took the opportunity to explore Hjaalmarch, though never straying too far. She was well known enough at the beginning of her second month as a resident of Morthal that she knew everyone, and everyone knew her, and it was rare that she encountered an unfamiliar face; Morthal was perpetually shrouded in mist and fog, surrounded by marsh, and not a landscape prone to attract casual visitors. And Meeko proved to be an excellent guardian against any of the local denizens of Hjaalmarch that they might encounter.

It was during one of Narissa's spring afternoon walks, on one of her few days free from work, that her steps took her north of the city; steps that were suddenly halted by an unexpected though all too familiar sight, a sight that brought memories rushing back to her.

It was rare for their entire sect, the sect dedicated to the return of The Wolf Queen, to collect together upon the platform of Summoning Stones at the very top of Wolf Skull cave, that platform where the ritual would finally be performed, the platform that would welcome Potema Septim back to the living, breathing, world. It was only special occasions that required Nari to trudge up the endless steps to reach that zenith, and to stand with Nox and Neve and the rest of her brother and sister priests and priestesses while Catilia recited whatever prayer or invocation she had written to mark the event as a special day.

Those occasions were rare, but they were more than enough that Narissa recognized immediately the structure that stood before her. Summoning Stones. Summoning Stones that were identical to those in Wolfskull cave.

Narissa had little memory of her flight from those stones back to Morthal.