p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"emProudspire Manor, 13th of Hearthfire/em/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora still had her eyes closed as she heard Ratibor walk into the chamber. Without opening them, she tried to determine whether her hungover was alright, bad, or horrendous. A few moments later, she felt the bed move as the man lay down next to her. Opening her eyes, she noticed the dark haired man lying two feet from her, rubbing his neck./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Oh, hello..." he said as he realised Aurora had carefully opened her eyes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"Aurora observed the man for a few seconds. To her surprise, he did not appear to suffer particularly much, even though Aurora and Bogdan had to carry the /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"unconscious/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" Ratibor to Proudspire that night. His hair was messier than usual, yet it still managed to look better than his younger brother's the previous night. His eyes appeared bright and were neither red nor baggy. "Sorry, I spent the night here..." the woman mumbled./span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I know," he interrupted her with a kind expression. "Bogdan told me," he said before stoking his neck again. "My neck is killing me," he said and leaned his head against the bedframe. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""The tub wasn't too comfortable?" Aurora chuckled./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"He turned his head towards her, but did not let go of the bedframe with the back of his head. "I'm growing too old for this," the man mumbled./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora was smiling, at first meeting his gaze, then looking down. "How old are you?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"Ratibor looked at her before smiling and making a small snort, /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"turning/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" his head away, then back towards Aurora. "Me? I'm 30. My neck isn't what it used to be. There was a time when I could sleep on floors, benches and bar tables," he remembered nostalgically. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora was about to sit up in the bed, but soon realised that she was only wearing underpants. The woman quickly drew her cover up to her armpits. Ratibor realised this and stood up, walked up to a chair and got her the tunic. As he reached for the trousers, he must have realised that they were ruined by the mud. He decided against bringing them to the bed, and instead merely handed Aurora her tunic./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora reached for it with a thankful gaze and wide smile, and was met by Ratibor's short chuckle. She wondered if he would peak as she let go of the cover, but was disappointed to realise that he had turned towards the window instead./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The woman sat up as she had pulled the tunic over her head, and looked around in the room. She was sitting with her legs bent underneath her and her hands on her knees. The room was not large, but featured a double bed, a wardrobe to the left of it and a small sofa with an armchair to the right. On the other side of the room, there was a writing table. During the few days the Goldwines had lived in Proudspire, Ratibor had managed to fill the room with books and parchment rolls. There were writings everywhere./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora crawled over Ratibor and walked up to the table, inspecting the parchment rolls from a distance. She then continued towards the sofa and armchair, picking up a roll. "I thought you were a playwright," she said, looking down at Ratibor, who was lying on the bed five or so feet away from her. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The man was wearing a wide, black tunic with its sleeves rolled up. A considerable part of his chest was seen, as he had not tied it properly. The man's hair was dark and excessively thick. "I am," he said and casually put one of his naked legs on top of the other as he remained in bed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""But you read poems yesterday," she said, smiling at him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Oh, did I?" he laughed. "Well, it's something I indulge in for a hobby," he spoke. "Vecheslav's a good poet, I am not." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""May I...?" Aurora asked and lifted the parchment roll she had been holding slightly farther up./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Ratibor nodded, smiling, as Aurora sat down on the side of the bed. The man turned to his right side, as Aurora leaned against his stomach and hip with the lower part of her back. She unrolled the parchment as the man lifted his head to see what poem she had picked up./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"We play whatever we want /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"And we vaunt and we flaunt /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"We fly away, but unaware of where /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"That is the rule of the game /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"But listen to the wind blowing an atonal motive/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"It promises us gold, it grants prayers so votive/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The wind caresses us, it bites us/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"And the ones that by their own will step into Oblivion/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Will be granted eternal life by Urilion/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Who is Urilion?" Aurora asked, turning her gaze back to the man./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Ratibor laughed, leaning his head back. "I don't know, but it rhymes." The man's gaze remained fixed at the ceiling whilst Aurora chuckled over the fact that he had obviously taken shortcuts in his writing. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The woman picked up a parchment roll which had a single paragraph neatly written on it./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Blindly, the sound we follow/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"And our faces sallow/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"In the discordant storm of winter snow/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Where we are? I still don't know/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I haven't come further with this," Ratibor said and pointed at the couplet which had been written a bit further down and pushed to the side, seemingly to make room for others./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The woman turned the paper around and saw a longer piece on the backside. At first, she inspected the neat handwriting. She had never seen anyone write so elegantly before. The letters were all symmetric, tilted to the right and a piece of work in themselves. The "T"s were taller than most other letters, the "F"s both taller and deeper than the rest, and formed an elegant bow at the top, whilst the "P"s appeared quite similar, but with a smaller bow and less tall. After a moment of admiring the font, Aurora began reading the lines./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Do you remember last spring /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"When I was in love with her? /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"What silly fools we once were /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"We would lie on a field and sing /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Darling, if only you knew /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"What devil you engaged and/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"You did not understand /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"You bit off more than you could chew /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Now you understood it all /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"How we walked into fire /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Others came to admire/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"How I took you down in the fall/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"How can you truly love me,/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Now that you've noticed the chase? /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Now as you've seen my true face –/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Can you find courage to bear me?/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"As for me there'll be no light/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"I have no use – I am phlegm/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"You do not have to condemn/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"There is no salvation in sight/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora did not know if Ratibor's poetry was considered good or bad. The only thing she knew was that it rhymed – and that was indeed poetry, she figured. Ratibor did not appear to appreciate the level of his lyric writings, but Aurora did not know whether this was due to his own doubts, or the fact that he indeed was a poor poet. Regardless, she decided to nod and give him acclaim. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Either way," he said, seemingly brushing off her praise. "You've never been interested in writing before?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""No," Aurora admitted. "Not particularly, it's a new world opening up to me. I mostly go on adventures… or used to go on adventures," she corrected herself. She pushed Ratibor slightly to the side and lay down on her back next to him. The man moved away a few more inches as her head touched the bedframe. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"She did not know whether she came across as bemoaning the fact that she no longer was an adventurer and warrior, but a ruler. Ratibor gave her a sympathetic look as he turned towards her, /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"though/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;"./span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;""What would you do if you could do /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"whatever/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" you want?" he asked with a genuinely interested gaze./span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Oh, I'm not complaining," Aurora said. "I am very much happy to be Jarl, I just did not anticipate the messiness of it all."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You became ruler in quite a difficult time," Ratibor said. "From an administrative point of view, that is."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The woman looked at him. His dark eyes were trying to find hers. He smiled slightly, as if he was trying to make her feel better about her situation. Aurora appreciated that – she understood that he knew it was merely a question of time until he too had the responsibilities, but of a Count. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;""Yes," Aurora said. "Thing is… I never trained for this. I was born to a poor family in the Imperial City. The thought of public /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"infrastructure/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" never even crossed my mind. And what the optimal level of taxation is." She sighed. "I'm not educated, like you are. Like you, or Harrald, or Olfina… I didn't study mathematics!"/span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The man looked at her with a concerned expression. A strand of his wavy black hair had fallen across the side of his cheek. He abruptly turned his body slightly in Aurora's direction, placing his elbow against the headrest, and his head against the same hand. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Would you like me to teach you?" he asked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora chuckled uncomfortably. "Oh, I don't know…" she began. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Ratibor did not let his gaze wander away from hers. "Why are you of so low opinion of yourself?" the man suddenly asked. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora wrinkled her forhead and once again chuckled awkwardly. "What do you mean? I'm not of em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"low /emopinion of myself – I'm the Dragonborn!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"She hoped that her little jokefulness would make him less stern, but Ratibor did not let go of her gaze, and after a while, she lowered it. The woman began processing his comment. She did not want to be seen as some sort of victim. She was not one and had never been. The whole thing about leaving home in order to escape an arranged marriage… Killing Alduin for Gods' sake! /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You went from nothing and became a soldier – one of the best soldiers Skyrim has ever seen. People compare you to Tiber Septim. And you are only twenty three, twenty four! It has taken you… what? Seven, eight years? You are obviously a quick learner, and with time, you will certainly become a competent leader."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Exactly," Aurora grinned./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""… Yet you seem to…" Ratibor began. "No, forget it."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Ratibor had suddenly looked away from Aurora, instead fixing his eyes on the door, which opened merely a second later. A wine-red-haired man casually entered the room, grinning and smoking a nightshade stick. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Thought I heard people talking," he said with one hand inside his pocket, and the other holding the smoking stick to his lips. "Reading my brother's em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"work/em?" he asked sarcastically, pointing at the parchment rolls in the bed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Ratibor started to move, as if he was to get up from the bed, but stopped after leaning forwards, making a rude gesture, before smiling and leaning back again. Bogdan chuckled and sat down next to Aurora's knees. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You still haven't finished this?" he asked, pointing with the smoking stick towards the almost empty parchment./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"br /"Some of us have actual work," Ratibor answered./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You've been writing on this one for over a year, give up already."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Oh, how goes em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"your/em writing?" Ratibor asked with a teasing tone. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I've been distracted," Bogdan said nonchalantly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""By drinking and substance intake," Ratibor grinned. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bogdan leaned over Aurora, towards his brother. "A bit steep to be coming from the one who spent the night in a bathtub, brother," he smiled and hit his brother slightly on the nose with a finger./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Ratibor rubbed his neck. "Yes, it's time to put an end to that. Why couldn't you just have put me on my bed, or at least on the sofa downstairs?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Do you know how heavy you are?" Bogdan hissed, throwing his arms out./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I've lost weight!" Ratibor said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You're still the size of a horker," Bogdan grinned with his eyes half closed as always, showing his teeth and the distances between them./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Have a look at yourself!" Ratibor playfully exclaimed, him too leaning over Aurora and pulling slightly in his brother's tunic./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"Aurora laughed /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"wholeheartedly/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" about the brothers' interaction. There seemed to be so much love and humour between them – and she was genuinely happy that they were so close to one another./span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The brothers looked at her as if they were planning something. "Did she just laugh at us?" Ratibor exclaimed and looked at Bogdan, pretending to be shocked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bogdan was grinning with his characteristic frog-like expression whilst the woman was looking at him. Suddenly, Ratibor attacked Aurora from behind, tickling her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The woman was unprepared for this and shrieked, causing Bogdan to laugh. Aurora twinched from side to side, avoiding the worst of Ratibor's tickles, whilst hitting his hands. After a second or two, she managed to push Ratibor down on his back, and got on top of him. Revenge was sweet, and the man yelled like a pig up for slaughter./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Bogda-an!" he exclaimed between his short breaths whilst the woman was torturing him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"From nowhere, Aurora could feel two hands on her waist, and was pulled down in the bed once again. Bogdan was not attacking her, though, he did not even hold her in his grip once they both landed. Instead, Aurora took his smoking stick whilst Ratibor did his best to sit up on the other side of the bed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Ouch, my neck!" they heard Ratibor complain. He was now trying to get up on his feet. "Not in my bed, kids," he said before getting up./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"Bogdan turned towards his brother, as did Aurora. They both had a /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"mischievous/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" expression to their faces./span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I'm talking about the smoking stick!" Ratibor sighed before going out. "Oh, and Bogdan. We have to get some work done today if we want to have em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Dreams /emready to the theatre opening."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bogdan looked at Aurora, who indeed had taken his smoking stick./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Hey! That's mine!" he exclaimed and took it from her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"*/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"It was late afternoon. The sun shone brightly, even though it was already autumn and the air grew increasingly chillier. Aurora was walking toward Proudspire with Egor and Vecheslav in tow – the men had visited the Jarl at the Blue Palace to hear about the developments of the new theatre, which was still under construction. One discussion led to another, and they soon came to the topic of the Goldwine brothers./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Bogdan wrote eleven novels in seven years, the first one at the age of thirteen. He's written two dramas and countless short stories. Ratibor has produced four books on his own and rewritten five or six of his brother's novels into plays. Ratibor wouldn't be nothing without Bogdan, but neither would he be the well-known author and playwright he is today," Egor said as they were passing the Thanes' houses. "He knows it himself, and it affects him greatly."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You are being immensely unjust," Vecheslav responded. "First of all, Ratibor has written a few novels too. Also, Ratibor always had duties of the first-born. He's been schooled to lead his county, he's been taught mathematics, politics, diplomacy... Bogdan was free to choose his own path in life, but Ratibor never had that opportunity."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You can't claim that the Count of Kvatch was a particularly strict parent," Egor said. "He let his sons do whatever they pleased!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Yes, but Ratibor understood his burden from an early age. His father allowed some liberty because he knew that his son has a strong sense of responsibility", Vecheslav began. "Is this the freedom you speak of?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Egor remained quiet, but his facial expression was not of a man who felt convinced by the point Vecheslav brought to his attention./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""This is not a competition of who is the most talented Goldwine," Aurora interrupted./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""All I'm saying is that it is unjust that Bogdan has been ignored by the cultural scene," Egor said. "His later books are amongst the best I've read."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I agree with you," Vecheslav said. "Bogdan is a master of words and genius of meaning."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Bogdan is unchallenged when it comes to depth. Frankly, I think Bogdan has surpassed his brother in all aspects of writing," he boldly claimed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""If he manages to actually produce anything, that is," Vecheslav said. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Egor went quiet again whilst looking at the tall man next to him. "Now you are being unfair."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I simply stated the facts," Vecheslav said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""What are you on about?" Aurora asked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Bogdan hasn't written anything in two years," Vecheslav said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Wrong," Egor said. "He finished one not long ago."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Well, he has had an issue with writing for a long time," Vecheslav said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""What? Why?" Aurora asked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Bogdan has... uhm... a slight issue with substances," Egor said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""That's not the underlying reason," Vecheslav said. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You can't claim that it does him any good!" Egor exclaimed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Bogdan suffers from… good times and lows," Vecheslav continued. "For the past two years, he hasn't been very happy. Neither has Ratibor, but at least he seems to be recovering. He's taken up writing again."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You mean that he is copying Bogdan's work," Egor said, rolling his eyes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Vecheslav went quiet. Aurora noticed that Egor felt as if he would break Vecheslav's arguments into pieces./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"The Suffering of an Aldmeri/em is one of Bogdan's earlier work," Egor said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I didn't know that," Vecheslav admitted./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Praise where praise is due," Egor said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The trio had reached Proudspire and took the stairs to the entrance door. The first floor of the manor appeared to be completely trashed. There were wine bottles, broken and intact, spread across the living room. The red, velvet sofa and two chairs the Goldwines had purchased from a Khajiit caravan were no longer standing as they had once been style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanAs the trio progressed into the kitchen, Aurora saw that cups were lying around everywhere, dirty plates were stacked somewhat together, but in different piles on the fireplace./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""By the nine!" Egor expressed. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""By the eight!" Vecheslav exclaimed. "What pigs they are, the Goldwines."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""And the maid will only be here the day after tomorrow," Egor sighed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora still had her eyes closed as she heard Ratibor walk into the chamber. Without opening them, she tried to determine whether her hungover was alright, bad, or horrendous. A few moments later, she felt the bed move as the man lay down next to her. Opening her eyes, she noticed the dark haired man lying two feet from her, rubbing his neck./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Oh, hello..." he said as he realised Aurora had carefully opened her eyes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"Aurora observed the man for a few seconds. To her surprise, he did not appear to suffer particularly much, even though Aurora and Bogdan had to carry the /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"unconscious/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" Ratibor to Proudspire that night. His hair was messier than usual, yet it still managed to look better than his younger brother's the previous night. His eyes appeared bright and were neither red nor baggy. "Sorry, I spent the night here..." the woman mumbled./span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I know," he interrupted her with a kind expression. "Bogdan told me," he said before stoking his neck again. "My neck is killing me," he said and leaned his head against the bedframe. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""The tub wasn't too comfortable?" Aurora chuckled./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"He turned his head towards her, but did not let go of the bedframe with the back of his head. "I'm growing too old for this," the man mumbled./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora was smiling, at first meeting his gaze, then looking down. "How old are you?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"Ratibor looked at her before smiling and making a small snort, /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"turning/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" his head away, then back towards Aurora. "Me? I'm 30. My neck isn't what it used to be. There was a time when I could sleep on floors, benches and bar tables," he remembered nostalgically. /span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora was about to sit up in the bed, but soon realised that she was only wearing underpants. The woman quickly drew her cover up to her armpits. Ratibor realised this and stood up, walked up to a chair and got her the tunic. As he reached for the trousers, he must have realised that they were ruined by the mud. He decided against bringing them to the bed, and instead merely handed Aurora her tunic./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora reached for it with a thankful gaze and wide smile, and was met by Ratibor's short chuckle. She wondered if he would peak as she let go of the cover, but was disappointed to realise that he had turned towards the window instead./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The woman sat up as she had pulled the tunic over her head, and looked around in the room. She was sitting with her legs bent underneath her and her hands on her knees. The room was not large, but featured a double bed, a wardrobe to the left of it and a small sofa with an armchair to the right. On the other side of the room, there was a writing table. During the few days the Goldwines had lived in Proudspire, Ratibor had managed to fill the room with books and parchment rolls. There were writings everywhere./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora crawled over Ratibor and walked up to the table, inspecting the parchment rolls from a distance. She then continued towards the sofa and armchair, picking up a roll. "I thought you were a playwright," she said, looking down at Ratibor, who was lying on the bed five or so feet away from her. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The man was wearing a wide, black tunic with its sleeves rolled up. A considerable part of his chest was seen, as he had not tied it properly. The man's hair was dark and excessively thick. "I am," he said and casually put one of his naked legs on top of the other as he remained in bed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""But you read poems yesterday," she said, smiling at him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Oh, did I?" he laughed. "Well, it's something I indulge in for a hobby," he spoke. "Vecheslav's a good poet, I am not." /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""May I...?" Aurora asked and lifted the parchment roll she had been holding slightly farther up./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Ratibor nodded, smiling, as Aurora sat down on the side of the bed. The man turned to his right side, as Aurora leaned against his stomach and hip with the lower part of her back. She unrolled the parchment as the man lifted his head to see what poem she had picked up./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"We play whatever we want /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"And we vaunt and we flaunt /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"We fly away, but unaware of where /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"That is the rule of the game /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"But listen to the wind blowing an atonal motive/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"It promises us gold, it grants prayers so votive/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The wind caresses us, it bites us/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"And the ones that by their own will step into Oblivion/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Will be granted eternal life by Urilion/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Who is Urilion?" Aurora asked, turning her gaze back to the man./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Ratibor laughed, leaning his head back. "I don't know, but it rhymes." The man's gaze remained fixed at the ceiling whilst Aurora chuckled over the fact that he had obviously taken shortcuts in his writing. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The woman picked up a parchment roll which had a single paragraph neatly written on it./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Blindly, the sound we follow/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"And our faces sallow/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"In the discordant storm of winter snow/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Where we are? I still don't know/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I haven't come further with this," Ratibor said and pointed at the couplet which had been written a bit further down and pushed to the side, seemingly to make room for others./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The woman turned the paper around and saw a longer piece on the backside. At first, she inspected the neat handwriting. She had never seen anyone write so elegantly before. The letters were all symmetric, tilted to the right and a piece of work in themselves. The "T"s were taller than most other letters, the "F"s both taller and deeper than the rest, and formed an elegant bow at the top, whilst the "P"s appeared quite similar, but with a smaller bow and less tall. After a moment of admiring the font, Aurora began reading the lines./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Do you remember last spring /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"When I was in love with her? /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"What silly fools we once were /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"We would lie on a field and sing /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Darling, if only you knew /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"What devil you engaged and/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"You did not understand /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-bidi-font-family: 'Lucida Grande'; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"You bit off more than you could chew /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Now you understood it all /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"How we walked into fire /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Others came to admire/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"How I took you down in the fall/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"How can you truly love me,/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Now that you've noticed the chase? /span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Now as you've seen my true face –/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Can you find courage to bear me?/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"As for me there'll be no light/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"I have no use – I am phlegm/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"You do not have to condemn/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"There is no salvation in sight/span/em/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora did not know if Ratibor's poetry was considered good or bad. The only thing she knew was that it rhymed – and that was indeed poetry, she figured. Ratibor did not appear to appreciate the level of his lyric writings, but Aurora did not know whether this was due to his own doubts, or the fact that he indeed was a poor poet. Regardless, she decided to nod and give him acclaim. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Either way," he said, seemingly brushing off her praise. "You've never been interested in writing before?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""No," Aurora admitted. "Not particularly, it's a new world opening up to me. I mostly go on adventures… or used to go on adventures," she corrected herself. She pushed Ratibor slightly to the side and lay down on her back next to him. The man moved away a few more inches as her head touched the bedframe. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"She did not know whether she came across as bemoaning the fact that she no longer was an adventurer and warrior, but a ruler. Ratibor gave her a sympathetic look as he turned towards her, /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"though/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;"./span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;""What would you do if you could do /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"whatever/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" you want?" he asked with a genuinely interested gaze./span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Oh, I'm not complaining," Aurora said. "I am very much happy to be Jarl, I just did not anticipate the messiness of it all."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You became ruler in quite a difficult time," Ratibor said. "From an administrative point of view, that is."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The woman looked at him. His dark eyes were trying to find hers. He smiled slightly, as if he was trying to make her feel better about her situation. Aurora appreciated that – she understood that he knew it was merely a question of time until he too had the responsibilities, but of a Count. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;""Yes," Aurora said. "Thing is… I never trained for this. I was born to a poor family in the Imperial City. The thought of public /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"infrastructure/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" never even crossed my mind. And what the optimal level of taxation is." She sighed. "I'm not educated, like you are. Like you, or Harrald, or Olfina… I didn't study mathematics!"/span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The man looked at her with a concerned expression. A strand of his wavy black hair had fallen across the side of his cheek. He abruptly turned his body slightly in Aurora's direction, placing his elbow against the headrest, and his head against the same hand. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Would you like me to teach you?" he asked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora chuckled uncomfortably. "Oh, I don't know…" she began. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Ratibor did not let his gaze wander away from hers. "Why are you of so low opinion of yourself?" the man suddenly asked. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Aurora wrinkled her forhead and once again chuckled awkwardly. "What do you mean? I'm not of em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"low /emopinion of myself – I'm the Dragonborn!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"She hoped that her little jokefulness would make him less stern, but Ratibor did not let go of her gaze, and after a while, she lowered it. The woman began processing his comment. She did not want to be seen as some sort of victim. She was not one and had never been. The whole thing about leaving home in order to escape an arranged marriage… Killing Alduin for Gods' sake! /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You went from nothing and became a soldier – one of the best soldiers Skyrim has ever seen. People compare you to Tiber Septim. And you are only twenty three, twenty four! It has taken you… what? Seven, eight years? You are obviously a quick learner, and with time, you will certainly become a competent leader."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Exactly," Aurora grinned./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""… Yet you seem to…" Ratibor began. "No, forget it."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Ratibor had suddenly looked away from Aurora, instead fixing his eyes on the door, which opened merely a second later. A wine-red-haired man casually entered the room, grinning and smoking a nightshade stick. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Thought I heard people talking," he said with one hand inside his pocket, and the other holding the smoking stick to his lips. "Reading my brother's em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"work/em?" he asked sarcastically, pointing at the parchment rolls in the bed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Ratibor started to move, as if he was to get up from the bed, but stopped after leaning forwards, making a rude gesture, before smiling and leaning back again. Bogdan chuckled and sat down next to Aurora's knees. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You still haven't finished this?" he asked, pointing with the smoking stick towards the almost empty parchment./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"br /"Some of us have actual work," Ratibor answered./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You've been writing on this one for over a year, give up already."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Oh, how goes em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"your/em writing?" Ratibor asked with a teasing tone. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I've been distracted," Bogdan said nonchalantly./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""By drinking and substance intake," Ratibor grinned. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bogdan leaned over Aurora, towards his brother. "A bit steep to be coming from the one who spent the night in a bathtub, brother," he smiled and hit his brother slightly on the nose with a finger./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Ratibor rubbed his neck. "Yes, it's time to put an end to that. Why couldn't you just have put me on my bed, or at least on the sofa downstairs?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Do you know how heavy you are?" Bogdan hissed, throwing his arms out./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I've lost weight!" Ratibor said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You're still the size of a horker," Bogdan grinned with his eyes half closed as always, showing his teeth and the distances between them./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Have a look at yourself!" Ratibor playfully exclaimed, him too leaning over Aurora and pulling slightly in his brother's tunic./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"Aurora laughed /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"wholeheartedly/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" about the brothers' interaction. There seemed to be so much love and humour between them – and she was genuinely happy that they were so close to one another./span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The brothers looked at her as if they were planning something. "Did she just laugh at us?" Ratibor exclaimed and looked at Bogdan, pretending to be shocked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bogdan was grinning with his characteristic frog-like expression whilst the woman was looking at him. Suddenly, Ratibor attacked Aurora from behind, tickling her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The woman was unprepared for this and shrieked, causing Bogdan to laugh. Aurora twinched from side to side, avoiding the worst of Ratibor's tickles, whilst hitting his hands. After a second or two, she managed to push Ratibor down on his back, and got on top of him. Revenge was sweet, and the man yelled like a pig up for slaughter./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Bogda-an!" he exclaimed between his short breaths whilst the woman was torturing him./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"From nowhere, Aurora could feel two hands on her waist, and was pulled down in the bed once again. Bogdan was not attacking her, though, he did not even hold her in his grip once they both landed. Instead, Aurora took his smoking stick whilst Ratibor did his best to sit up on the other side of the bed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Ouch, my neck!" they heard Ratibor complain. He was now trying to get up on his feet. "Not in my bed, kids," he said before getting up./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"span style="font-size: 13pt;"Bogdan turned towards his brother, as did Aurora. They both had a /spanspan style="font-size: 17.3333px;"mischievous/spanspan style="font-size: 13pt;" expression to their faces./span/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I'm talking about the smoking stick!" Ratibor sighed before going out. "Oh, and Bogdan. We have to get some work done today if we want to have em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"Dreams /emready to the theatre opening."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Bogdan looked at Aurora, who indeed had taken his smoking stick./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Hey! That's mine!" he exclaimed and took it from her./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"*/span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"It was late afternoon. The sun shone brightly, even though it was already autumn and the air grew increasingly chillier. Aurora was walking toward Proudspire with Egor and Vecheslav in tow – the men had visited the Jarl at the Blue Palace to hear about the developments of the new theatre, which was still under construction. One discussion led to another, and they soon came to the topic of the Goldwine brothers./span/p
p class="MsoNormal"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Bogdan wrote eleven novels in seven years, the first one at the age of thirteen. He's written two dramas and countless short stories. Ratibor has produced four books on his own and rewritten five or six of his brother's novels into plays. Ratibor wouldn't be nothing without Bogdan, but neither would he be the well-known author and playwright he is today," Egor said as they were passing the Thanes' houses. "He knows it himself, and it affects him greatly."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You are being immensely unjust," Vecheslav responded. "First of all, Ratibor has written a few novels too. Also, Ratibor always had duties of the first-born. He's been schooled to lead his county, he's been taught mathematics, politics, diplomacy... Bogdan was free to choose his own path in life, but Ratibor never had that opportunity."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You can't claim that the Count of Kvatch was a particularly strict parent," Egor said. "He let his sons do whatever they pleased!"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Yes, but Ratibor understood his burden from an early age. His father allowed some liberty because he knew that his son has a strong sense of responsibility", Vecheslav began. "Is this the freedom you speak of?"/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Egor remained quiet, but his facial expression was not of a man who felt convinced by the point Vecheslav brought to his attention./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""This is not a competition of who is the most talented Goldwine," Aurora interrupted./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""All I'm saying is that it is unjust that Bogdan has been ignored by the cultural scene," Egor said. "His later books are amongst the best I've read."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I agree with you," Vecheslav said. "Bogdan is a master of words and genius of meaning."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Bogdan is unchallenged when it comes to depth. Frankly, I think Bogdan has surpassed his brother in all aspects of writing," he boldly claimed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""If he manages to actually produce anything, that is," Vecheslav said. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Egor went quiet again whilst looking at the tall man next to him. "Now you are being unfair."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I simply stated the facts," Vecheslav said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""What are you on about?" Aurora asked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Bogdan hasn't written anything in two years," Vecheslav said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Wrong," Egor said. "He finished one not long ago."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Well, he has had an issue with writing for a long time," Vecheslav said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""What? Why?" Aurora asked./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Bogdan has... uhm... a slight issue with substances," Egor said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""That's not the underlying reason," Vecheslav said. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You can't claim that it does him any good!" Egor exclaimed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Bogdan suffers from… good times and lows," Vecheslav continued. "For the past two years, he hasn't been very happy. Neither has Ratibor, but at least he seems to be recovering. He's taken up writing again."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""You mean that he is copying Bogdan's work," Egor said, rolling his eyes./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"Vecheslav went quiet. Aurora noticed that Egor felt as if he would break Vecheslav's arguments into pieces./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""em style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"The Suffering of an Aldmeri/em is one of Bogdan's earlier work," Egor said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""I didn't know that," Vecheslav admitted./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""Praise where praise is due," Egor said./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;"The trio had reached Proudspire and took the stairs to the entrance door. The first floor of the manor appeared to be completely trashed. There were wine bottles, broken and intact, spread across the living room. The red, velvet sofa and two chairs the Goldwines had purchased from a Khajiit caravan were no longer standing as they had once been style="mso-spacerun: yes;" /spanAs the trio progressed into the kitchen, Aurora saw that cups were lying around everywhere, dirty plates were stacked somewhat together, but in different piles on the fireplace./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""By the nine!" Egor expressed. /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""By the eight!" Vecheslav exclaimed. "What pigs they are, the Goldwines."/span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;""And the maid will only be here the day after tomorrow," Egor sighed./span/p
p class="MsoNormal" style="tab-stops: 162.0pt;"span style="font-size: 13.0pt; font-family: 'Verdana',sans-serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB;" /span/p