Cearbhail: You know... immediately after writing this...I felt so stupid for killing her off. So very stupid. But I decided that her memory will live on. By making her related to someone that you will all understand soon enough. I'm sure if you read the other stories this will tie it in very well. You'll see. Anyway, please enjoy. OH, and we finally learn Hans' last name. No...It isn't The Hardy..

[Hans]

My wife is dead. I was busy shielding a group of archers from an aerial bombardment with a warding bubble when it happened. I shouldn't have allowed myself to be distracted like that. I should always have my mind on all aspects of the battle. She was retreating with all the civilians. War is sick, war is crazy, war is everything wrong when it has a chance to be right. War…this war has killed so many people, for no reason. This war makes no sense, it never does. But people like me exist to keep war as short as possible and over as soon as it starts. I am a warrior, a creature of war. I am hated by all my social peers, looked upon as a barbarian and outcast. I'm only appreciated when it's time for someone to die. I live in a dark world, but…even I have a heart. Her name was Eira, my wife.

I first met Eira one day during a blizzard in Winterhold. She was a daughter of the Arch-Mage and as such, she rarely ever left the safety of the college. I was the son of a farmer, nothing too fancy. No, I was not born as a warrior, kicking and screaming in my mother's womb. No, I was just from a farming family, as are many Nords from Skyrim. Sure, we're still the best fighters other than Orcs, but bloodshed is not our lifestyle, only a means to an end.

It was because that she was the daughter of the Arch-Mage and I a son of a farmer that I was so surprised to see her one day, walking down to our farm. The blizzard was heavy and she had gotten lost while looking for the Imperial Storehouse. I was outside, locking up the cows and chickens. It was supposed to be a very strong storm that could have threatened the lives of our livestock. It was my job to make sure that they were locked up during the times of storms and raids. I was just a young kid back then, not really any worries at all of any kind.

While I was leading the cows into the den, I could see the giant cloud of snow heading towards us. The snow had only just thickened and now the wind had started growing stronger. My clothes were thick enough to keep me warm, but for some reason this wind almost tore my face up. I threw myself into the barn with the rest of the animals. It wasn't a long rush to the house and I knew that I could make it back in more or less one piece. But the snow was so thick that I couldn't see more than a foot in front of me and the wind was strong enough to throw me aside. I was far safer inside the barn with the cows and chickens.

So, I sat there by the door, waiting for the wind to die down. The wind howled loudly as the windows took the frontal assault of the snow, boards creaking as the wind hit against them. The cows and chickens were more or less confused and chaotic. It was amazing that I could hear someone outside at all.

"HELP! HELP!" I heard a light voice cry out from not too far away. It was the beginning. The beginning of my life with Eira.

I noticed the cry for help and walked up to the door. I tried to peek out the door, but the sheer force of the wind blasted it open. I was thrown back as a foot of snow rained down on top of me. It was the cry of the girl that pushed me back up on my feet. I raised my hand to shield my eyes as I stepped up to the flapping barn doors. I peered out but I couldn't see anything, but I could still hear the crying of the girl. I rushed out into the blind snowstorm, charging forward into nothing as I tried to find the crying girl. My lungs cried out in horror as more snow than air found its way to my lungs. I bent down to cough up for some air, but I kept pushing on. I stopped in my tracks to look around. I didn't see anything. It was nothing but a giant moving blur of snow. I didn't know where I even was anymore. And I didn't hear the crying anymore.

I turned around and rushed back. I didn't know where she was, or where I was for that matter. My face started burning from the intense cold wind blasting at me. The snow I trudged through grew deeper and deeper by the second. It started at my ankles but now it was up to my knees. I was only 13 or so, so it wouldn't take too much more to get up to my waist. I needed to get back to the barn; otherwise I'd be buried out here.

It was when I couldn't see the barn that it happened. I felt something smash into me and it sent me falling into the snow. Whatever crashed into me shrieked out in surprise and fell in with me. It took me a second to push my face out of the snow, and I expected there to be a saber cat to be standing over me. I did not expect a pair of bright blue eyes and dark black hair to be staring down at me. She hovered perhaps a few inches away from my face, her bright big eyes filled with curiosity. Even with ragged wind and snow blowing all around us, we still had a few seconds where we were lost in each other's eyes.

When I finally remembered that I was in fact a living person and that the eyes I was lost in were not mine. When I noticed that, I noticed that this girl's body was laying on top of mine. She seemed to notice her position as well so she blushed and pushed herself up off of me. "Sorry." She smiled and stood up. She reached down to take my hand. When I took it, she said, "Why are you out in this blizzard?"

"I heard someone crying for help." I screamed through the howling wind.

She blushed and looked away. "That was me. I…I can't…um…I don't know where I am. And it's getting worse out here. I'm so cold and all this freezing wind is breaking my spell-crafting."

"Spell-crafting? Are you a wizard?" I asked as I looked down at her. She wasn't wearing a thick coat like I was. She was dressed in light blue mage robes. I hadn't noticed it before but she was dressed as a mage.

She saw me looking down at her body and she covered her slightly bumpy chest. "Yes, I am a mage and no I'm not dressed for cold weather." She glanced around, but neither of us could see anything other than giant waves of snowflakes in the air. "I don't know where I am."

I pulled her arm and said, "Follow me. We need to get out of this blizzard before it kills us." If I was freezing in my coat, she must have been dying in this storm. Her robes looked thin enough to keep her warm in normal cold weather, but it looked like it wouldn't help at all in this wind and snow. She proved me right as she started shivering and rubbing her arms. Her face had completely paled and her lips were turning purple. I doubt she could last much longer in this weather.

I started pulling her to follow me. She ambled behind me. I could tell that her limbs were locking up. She couldn't last much longer out here. I had to find our barn, or something at least. Maybe I could find the house. The wind howled in my face caused me to stop for a second. The girl crashed into my back and it forced us both to fall down into the snow. It was finally up to my waist and I was starting to shake. I couldn't last much longer out here.

The girl grabbed onto my back and pulled me close. I could tell that she was barely even aware of what was going on. "Where are we?" She asked.

I looked around. I still couldn't see anything. I sighed and turned back to her. Her face was so pale and her eyes were all but glued shut. She was shaking violently now. I had to do something. I looked at her, taking in her features. She was beautiful and for some reason, I realized that I wanted to do whatever it took to keep her alive. Maybe I was just trying to save her life, or maybe it was something else. But, I grabbed onto her neck and pulled her close to me. I pressed my lips onto hers and breathed some warm air into her mouth. I noticed her reach up to me and she pulled me close to her. Her hands were so cold and I guess that I was warm. She needed to get warmer if she was to survive.

I looked down at my coat and pulled it off. The cold wind hit me so fast that I lost all my breath in the process. The cold felt like razors on me. If I was this cold, imagine what she was going through. I threw my coat over her body, wrapping her up. I picked us out of the snow and I started trudging forward. The snow was still falling fast down upon us and I had to think fast. I settled for just pushing through the snow, the girl following silently behind me. I didn't get far before I had to stop to catch my labored breath.

"Do you hear that?" I heard her ask from behind me. "It sounds like chickens."

I paused for a second, actually holding my breath. The wind howled everywhere, but I could hear just a tiny bit of chickens clucking. It was to the right of me. I smiled and pulled her arm. "Come on! We're almost there. Run, if you can. We're almost out of this!"

I pushed as hard as I could, the girl panting as she tried to keep up with me. I kept pulling her arm, trying to keep her with me. I was not going to lose her. Not like this. The sounds of the chickens were getting louder and now I could even hear the cows mooing. It wasn't long before I could see the open barn door and the lit torches inside. Lit torches: instant warmth. I needed to get there.

I laughed as I screamed back at the girl. "We're almost there. I can see it." I stepped forward but my hand halted. I pulled but I was met with resistance. I glanced back to see the girl was unconscious, leaning against the thick snow. She looked like she was dead. "NO!" I screamed. I turned around and wrapped my arms under her armpits. I heaved and started dragging her along, slowly making my way through the snow. "You are not going to die! Not out here! Not to this!"

I made it to the barn with the girl. I laid her on some fresh hay and raced off to close the barn door. With all the snow built up around it, I couldn't get the doors to budge. It didn't really matter, though. We were out of the extreme cold and as long as we all stayed in the back of the barn, which was adorned with several torches, we would stay as warm as we needed to be until this storm passed.

The girl was still unconscious, but I could see that she was breathing. I had taken my coat off of her since it was soaked in melted snow. I spent most of my time trying to warm her up by rubbing her arms and legs. It was only a few minutes before she opened her eyes and sleepily glanced at me. She half-smiled before falling back to sleep. That smile told me everything I wanted to know. We were both safe from here on out.

I sat down beside her and I found myself beginning to fall asleep. I did not realize that I was worn out. I should have guessed that running around in the snow and dragging back an unconscious girl would make me tired. So, I lied down next to her and closed my eyes. We had enough heat, I was sure that nothing bad would happen to us from here on out.

"Hey." I heard her soft voice, almost a whisper. "I'm Eira Silver-Sword. What's your name?" It sounded like she was whispering in her sleep.

I smiled, allowing myself to fall asleep. "Hans Battle-Born." My voice returned as soft as her whisper. I think we were both dreaming by then.

…

My eyes were filled with tears as I looked down at the beheaded corpse that was my wife. If I hadn't lost my concentration, she would still be here with me. But this was it…she was really gone. Everything I had gone through, everything we did together…was over now. She was gone.

In my sorrow, I reached up with my hands and I willed all my anger to fill the sky, to attack the enemies that had done this to her. My sorrow gladly took the vision of pure blue fire. I watched with tear-stricken eyes as the sky turned a violent blue and orange. The Aedra were feeling my pain and my sorrow. If they could not understand us, they would after this.

"Hans!" I heard Sosia scream from beside me. "Keep those Aedra distracted while I pass this child!"

I blinked and I realized that I was still locked in the past. That had happened several minutes ago. I must have completely lost track of my surroundings because I had no idea how I had gotten here. I have been known to go on auto-pilot when I'm in completely stressful situations. Looking up at the sky, I could see that the Aedra had almost recovered from my outburst a few minutes ago. There weren't nearly as many as there were minutes ago, but there were still too many of them for me to take alone.

"Hans, left side!" Adam cried out.

I snapped around to see Adam Ernard launch off a fireball the size of his body at the sky. A line of Aedra scattered off of their attack as one of their own impacted with the fireball. There was nothing left of the Aedra. Why was this so easy? These foes used to be strong and powerful. Now they just seemed mindless and scattered. The defeat we gave them back at Fort Magicka really threw them into a mindless struggle.

I guess the remaining Aedra were tired of this game of fly-around-and-randomly-attack-the-humans as well. The sky filled with swarming Aedra seemed to come to a stop. Thunder clapped above us and I saw the Aedra just hover up in the sky. A few of them vanished and reappeared on the ground, only a few inches away from myself and Adam.

That second of hesitation was all it really took for Adam to have a flaming sword fly through his stomach. That second of hesitation, I was able to use it to my advantage. I flashed up to Adam's new friend and bashed him so hard in the face with a flaming fist that I was shocked that he still had a head after I was done with him. But there was bad news, Adam now had a gaping wound in his stomach.

As I tried to bend over to help him, I felt a burning sensation over my side. I leapt away just in time for the sword of the Aedra attacking me to graze my armor. As I stood up, I looked around. There weren't many of us left now. It was only me, Adam (who was now dying), Jauffre, Iver, and Sosia (who was giving birth).

"What's going on over there?" Sosia cried out in pain. Her eyes were glued shut as she tried her best to push the baby out of her body.

Jauffre glanced down at Adam, who was feeding Restoration magic into his wound. "Nothing. Hans and Adam are keeping the Aedra busy."

"And then what?" Sosia asked. "We're trapped here!"

"Father!" I heard the soft voice of Merete, my daughter.

I glanced over to the staircase to see her sprinting up to me. I paused for a second but I forced myself to focus on my enemy. "Merete! Leave with the others! Hurry!" I screamed to her. I just lost my wife, I was not going to lose my only child. Not like this.

My daughter stopped an unsheathed her sword. She ran up to me, attacking the Aedra that was attacking me. "Not without you, father!" She ran her sword right through the beast and it screeched out in bloody murder before its blue head rocked back, dead.

Several Aedra fell to the ground and exploded into fiery ashes. I looked to the staircase to see that Bosmer with the bow running back up. "Sir, I couldn't stop her! So, I led the others to the hidden retreat zone and came back to protect her."

I nodded to the Bosmer. "You have my thanks. But now…you have to get her out of here."

I looked up at the sky. There were still so many of them. I don't know how we expected to get out of here alive. Adam was now starting to stand back up, grabbing his chest in slight pain. "Sir…I'm back."

"Good." I replied. "I think we're about to get hit…and pretty hard too."

I looked up at the sky to see the Aedra still hovering there. "What are they waiting for?" Merete asked to herself.

The Bosmer pulled back a few arrows into his bow and glanced up. "I can see one of them flying down to meet us."

I had to glance hard, but I could see it. In the middle of the masses, I could see one of the only white-robed Aedra with a golden sash floating down to meet us. I had enough experiences with one of these kinds of Aedra before. They were dressed differently and represented a stronger version of the Aedra. Like field generals or something. While normal Aedra died under my blades, these ones had a little more combat expertise. I guess the fighting stopped so that one of them could come down and finish us off.

The thing landed on the ground like a meteor crashing into the temple grounds. The ground around it exploded into a giant field of dust and rocks. The ground shook underneath us. It was at that very second that Sosia cried out in her loudest scream of pain yet. "Almost there. I can see the head."

The dust cleared and I could see an Aedra standing in the center of a small crater. With a flick of its wrists a sword materialized in one hand and a locked crossbow in the other. I pulled up my massive claymore and gestured to the thing to bring it on. I can't remember much of what happened. I was suddenly on my back and Adam was screaming out in pain.

The Aedra that had attacked us was now staggering back, four arrows sticking in its chest. It looked over at the Bosmer and its eyes narrowed. With a flick of a wrist, the Bosmer was tossed aside. He flew across the battlefield, landing near the staircase leading away.

Sosia's cries finally died out, but now there were new cries filling the air. "Congrats, Sosia. It's a girl!" Jauffre said.

Adam looked away. It was in that second that the Aedra acted. It snaked forward and ran its sword right through him, cutting him in two. I turned to attack it but was welcomed with an explosion of multiple Restoration bombs from above. My daughter cried out in horror as she was pelted as well.

My hearing was deafened to nothing but loud screeching noises and I could see the Aedra glancing curiously at the baby now in Sosia's arms. Sosia looked worried as she could be. Jauffre was spinning around, unsheathing a daikatana. The Aedra spun him aside like he was nothing.

That's when I heard it spoke. "Mortal. Your child…" Its voice sounded like sandpaper rubbing against a very course rock.

Sosia pulled it back and screamed. "I'd rather die!"

"So be it…"

The Aedra blew up into a thousand pieces. I closed my eyes to shield myself from the explosion but opened them quickly enough to see someone I never expected to see: The Argonian military leader…the Warlord.

He had his hands folded behind his back in a relaxed manner. Several of his elite guards were walking out of a purple/black portal that continued to hold behind him. He glanced over at us and said, "Come, we must leave. Now."

I looked over to the Bosmer and my daughter. Both of them were too far away and I could see the Aedra flying down to meet us. I looked to both of them and screamed. "Get your asses out of here while you still can. We'll be fine!"

For once in her life, Merete listened to me. She took off with the Bosmer, heading to their underground passage to the Imperial City, no doubt. I looked back up at the Warlord, who looked down at us with inquisitive eyes. "Come with me if you want to live."

I guess we had no choice. He was the only way out of here in one piece.

Cearbhail: Hans Battle-Born. Married to a black haired spell-slinger. Sounds a lot like Cecilie... oops.. did I just spoil that surprise?