Author's Note: Well I hope I have kept it "T" in this chapter. I also hope you enjoy it. It's a little deeper than previous chapters. Please review to tell me what you think of it and once again, thanks for reading!

The Edge of the Blade

I didn't find Grelod right away. She had moved from the docks to the shore and she was waist deep in the lake. Her arms were thrust down, stiff, and I could see little hands wrapped around her elbows. Grelod was so absorbed in drowning the girl she didn't even notice me sprint up behind her.

Anger boiled inside of me. My protectiveness of Lynn coupled with my fear enveloped me but instead of making my brain fuzzier with emotion it cleared it. Cold rage burned in my veins and mixed with adrenalin to make an overwhelming concoction. Without thinking twice I moved nearly silently through the water, Lynn's thrashing blocking out any noise I made, but she was getting weaker.

I reached around Grelod and put one hand over her mouth firmly holding her and pulling her up. In shock she went to reach for my hand but she didn't have time before the dagger took her life. I heaved her as close to shore as I could without a second thought.

I reached under water then, feeling for the cute little girl that I had grown too attached to in the short time to lose now. I found her hand, weak, and pulled her up, out of the water. Her body was cold, but so was the water, and I prayed to all the Divines that she was alive as I dragged her to shore.

Luckily it didn't take much to resuscitate her. She coughed and spit up water and then thrashed away from me. I didn't feel the way I had moments before now. I felt drained and tired and hurt. Lynn looked at me for a minute and then threw her arms around me.

"Ever! You came!" she said. "I thought you were Grelod. I thought she had killed me."

She sobbed in my arms and I held her, trying to come off stronger than I felt. I whispered soothing things in her ears, trying to believe them myself.

She pulled away a little to look at my face, "Grelod, is she…is she…"

I swallowed hard and nodded. I wouldn't lie to her, not now. She hugged me again, tighter. "I'm so sorry," she said. "You were right. I should have just let you handle it but I wanted to help, I wanted you to see I wouldn't get in the way. I'm so sorry."

"Shh, shh. You did help Lynn, you were great. It's not your fault this happened, shh," I said. It's mine. What have I done?

"Don't leave me please. I won't get in the way I promise. I won't be a burden anymore. Please don't send me back, I don't want to go back, I want to stay with you," she was crying so hard she shook.

"Please," she whispered.

I held her shoulders firmly and pulled her away again so I could look into her eyes. "You're not a burden Lynn. You never were and I'm not sending you anywhere. You're going to stay with me. Understand?"

She nodded, tears streaming down her face. I hugged her again, tighter than before, knowing that what I had said was true. I hadn't been sure until then, but Lynn had come into my life for a reason, and no matter what it took I was going to make sure she stayed in it. She deserved that much from me after all she'd been through.

"Lynn," I said after awhile. "I need you to go back to camp. I have some things I need to take care of tonight. You know where the spare weapons are, make sure Jared and you each have one. If anything too menacing comes for you, run for the city gates ok? I'll see you in a few hours, I promise."

She nodded and took off quickly, despite her shaking legs. I sighed and looked back at the water. I had a body get rid of.

…

It wasn't hard to find Grelod, she was much closer to shore than I would have thought I was capable of. Using magic I got rid of the evidence with several destruction and illusion spells. It was difficult, I hadn't practiced in a long time. Even then it couldn't have taken more than an hour but that was still too long. Everything that had just happened was crashing down hard on me.

After it was all done I tried to get myself to move, to go back to camp. I told myself Lynn and Jared needed me, that they were alone in the wilderness, scared and uncertain. But I couldn't find the strength.

I knew I had only acted in self-defense, that if I hadn't done what I did that Grelod would have killed Lynn. Even if I had just fought her, Lynn could have drowned in the time it took to deal with the old woman. She could have drowned as it was. I knew this, and I knew that the orphanage and every child there would live a happier and healthier life now that she was dead.

But I still couldn't get over it. It wasn't even so much that I had killed her that bothered me. In my short stay at Skyrim I had seen death and even caused it myself to bandits and thugs, murderers and thieves, and Grelod wasn't much better than most of them. I had learned to deal with that sort of death.

No, it was how I felt when I did it. In all my life I couldn't recall a time I felt more in my element, more alive, more powerful. I had felt wonderful and good when I had picked the safe, when I had killed a dragon, when I had hit my first bullseye with a bow, when I had conjured lightning for the first time. But this experience was more than any of that, the raw fire and clarity I had felt in that moment…

What's wrong with me?

It shouldn't have felt that way. I wanted to deny it and the guilt that was attached to it. Learning I was dragonborn had been easier to deal with than this! I felt my stomach tie itself in knots as fear overwhelmed me. What did this mean about me? What did this make me?

Finally my poor stomach couldn't take any more and I emptied it in the bushes I rolled away and then curled up in a ball and cried. Once I had truly drained myself of any emotion or thought, I got up and headed back to camp.

I was different. Now I felt all the urgency of the task ahead of me. I had come to Skyrim to discover more about my past, and who I was and the longer I'd been here the more questions I got than answers. That was going to change. Finding out my beginning was vital, essential. Finally I knew I was ready to do whatever it took to get that done. I couldn't hide anymore.