Chapter 58

Madness of a Mother

Sheogorath took a bow at the sound of his name and politely said, "Charmed."

Bishop drew one of his swords and held it out, pointing it at the Daedric Lord. "Send us back right now," he demanded.

Sheogorath shouted, "HOW RUDE!" This made them both jump, but then he said in a softer voice, "To show up to dinner and not even dressed in the proper attire." Sheogorath snapped his fingers and both Rona and Bishop were quickly enveloped in some kind of magical energy.

In a second they were no longer wearing their usual clothes but instead had on some fine clothing. Bishop was now wearing a red nobleman's suit with a dark brown, fur fitted shoulder cloak and a fur trimmed hat to match and Rona had on a floor length white dress with a short, lacy red bolero draped over her shoulders and pinned together with a gold chain in front. They looked like wedding clothes.

They were also completely disarmed and Bishop was no longer holding his sword but a very peculiar looking staff with a terrifying face on it. He dropped it on the ground the second he realized what it was and grabbed the fur trimmed hat off his head and chucked it across the forest with an angry snarl.

"Much better!" Sheogorath said with a pleased look on his face, "Now. What brings you tiny, puny, expendable little mortals to me this fine evening?"

Bishop took a sharp breath through his nose and said, "No. We are not fucking doing this again."

He grabbed Rona by the arm, dragging her away and into the fog with him. She felt very uneasy. "Bishop, we have no idea where we are. We shouldn't just go wandering around in a place like this."

"I'm not about to do whatever insane bidding the fucking Mad God himself wants me to do. I put up with Sanguine's shit, I am not doing this all over again," he sounded far more livid than afraid. He was letting his anger lead him and Rona, not knowing what to do herself simply fell into step behind him, letting him pull her along.

After a minute of walking they came out of the fog and stepped right back into the same clearing where Sheogorath now sat at the table in his tall stone chair enjoying a slice of cheese and a goblet of wine. Though they were on the opposite side of the table now from where they left.

Bishop let her go and stormed right up to the Daedric Prince, slammed his hands on the table and roared, "WHERE THE FUCK ARE WE!?"

Sheogorath looked up at him, a cheerful smile on his face, "Inside the mind of Emperor Pelagius the third, silly. Oh? Is it your first time?"

Bishop held his hands up and curled his fingers in a throttling motion before he muttered steadily through grit teeth, "Look. Let me level with you here... Daedric... lord or whatever," he pointed back at Rona, "She needs to go back to the mortal world so she can finish her fucking journey that you all put her on and kill the World Eater which will save everyone, including you and your... kind."

He was trying to keep his temper leveled, trying to reason with a Daedric Prince... trying to reason with The Mad God himself.

Sheogorath looked between Bishop and her for a moment before he said, "You know, I always did think Akatosh had a sense of humor granting my dearest Claudia with the Dragonborn as her first child. Even funnier when she nearly starved the living legend herself as just a teeny, tiny babe," he took a gulp of his wine.

"That's not funny," Bishop said firmly.

"You have questions don't you Dragonborn? I might be of a mind to answer them for you. Or I might not. In fact, I'm absolutely, positively out of my mind!" He gave a hearty laugh then motioned to the empty chair across from him, "Come along then! Join me! Have a seat, try the cheese!"

They had no choice. They would have to go along with whatever the Daedric Prince had in store for them if they ever wanted to leave. Rona complied and walked over, sitting in the chair across from Sheogorath, nervously tracing the folds in the silky white dress.

She looked him over as he bounced his shoulders and enjoyed his wine. Then she remembered the creepy bosmer who was missing his eyes. He must have been talking about Sheogorath with his nonsensical rant. "I met one of your... people," she said, "he asked me to retrieve you from your vacation. Your people need you."

Sheogorath seemed bored and said loudly, "Yaaaawwwwn... Oh, pardon me. Were you saying something? I do apologize, it's just that I find myself suddenly and irrevocably... BORED! I mean, really. Here you are sitting before Sheogorath himself, Daedric Prince of Madness and all you deem fit to do is... deliver a message? How sad," he tossed a hand out, motioning hand towards himself and said, "Come on now Dragonborn. Ask me about her. You want to know don't you? I've heard your pestering pleas for ages now, 'Why doesn't my mother love me?' 'Why doesn't my mother understand?' 'Why is she so damn CRAZY!'" He flashed a pearly white grin at her.

Rona did want to know, but at the same time she didn't. She'd almost made peace with the fact that her mother was irrevocably insane at times and wasn't feeling too eager to drag all those feelings back up to the surface again.

"Why the looong face girl?" Sheogorath drawled looking her over, "Alright, here's what I'm going to do. I'm going to leave," they both perked up at this but Sheogorath went on, "That's right. I'm done. Holiday complete. Because honestly, how much time off could a demented Daedra really need? Time to return to the hum drum day-to-day. On one condition." Sheogorath snapped his fingers and the fog overwhelmed them all of a sudden. Bishop grasped her hand and she held on, not wanting to lose him in whatever insanity the Daedric Prince had cooked up for them.

As the fog lifted they were suddenly in a new forest, one which was just like the other, with three separate paths, however one half of the forest was bright and colorful, like spring time, with flourishing pink and green trees and skittering wildlife, the other half was terrifying, desolate and dark, the trees were dead and the atmosphere was haunting. One of the paths met in the middle of these two strange scenes, both mixed together in a jagged pattern down the road.

Sheogorath was still seated in front of them, looking quite pleased with himself as he said, "Oh yes, I'll leave, but you have to find your way out first! Good luck with that," he waved a hand and said, "Care to look around? This is not, I dare say, the Solitude botanical gardens. Have you any idea where you are? Where you truly are?"

Rona stood up then and looked around for a minute, then met his cat-like eyes and asked hesitantly, "The mind of Pelagius?"

That's what he'd said before, though that was clearly not the answer when he shouted, "WRONG! Welcome to the deceptively verdant mind of Claudia Agahild Windsleaf! That's right! You're in the head of your own dead, mentally insane mother. Now I know what you're thinking. Can I still rely on my swords and spells and sneaking and all that nonsense? Sure, sure. Or... you could use," he waved a hand dramatically and made the creepy staff appear right in her hand as he cried, "THE WABBAJACK! Huh? Huh? Didn't see that coming, did you?"

She looked at the staff in her hand. It appeared to be made of some kind of metal and the head at the top was actually more jovial in appearance than frightening. It was like any other face except for its incredibly long mouth which served as a hole in the staff.

Sheogorath pointed at Bishop excitedly, "Oh! Oh! Use it on him! Give it a try!"

Bishop scowled at Sheogorath then looked nervously at her. She scoffed at him, "I'm not going to use it on you."

Sheogorath whined, "Well you're no fun! Alright," he snapped his fingers again and made a harmless rabbit appear on the ground, "Try it on Mister Cabots instead."

Rona held the staff out, pointing it at the rabbit, she didn't know how to make it work though and tried a few Aldmeri incantations with no luck. Sheogorath said, "It's not a regular staff girl, you have to will the change! Just shake it a bit!"

She shrugged and aimed it again then jut it at the rabbit. A red light shot from the end and hit the rabbit making it change immediately into a sabre cat which turned on them and started growling viciously. Bishop muttered with quaver in his voice, "Laaadyshiiip."

Rona panicked and said, "Uh... I - er!" as the sabre cat got low, getting ready to pounce, she pointed the staff again and fired another shot at it, this time changing it into a Giant.

"RONA!" Bishop shouted grabbing her by the shoulders and yanking her back as the giant swung its club down right where she was standing and smashed the chair into pieces.

She tried one more time, firing another shot which of course only made it worse as the giant changed into a dragon which growled angrily at them. Bishop threw his hand around her arm gripping it hard and roared, "RUN!" They ran down the dark and dreary path as the dragon flew into the cloudy, purplish sky and they heard Sheogorath's hearty laughter fading in the distance.

They had no weapons, but maybe she still had her shouts. She looked up at the beast and cried, "Fus Ro Dah!" But nothing came out but the words themselves, flat and useless.

"FUUUCK!" Bishop swore.

The dragon swooped down on them and she filled her mind with happy images of a little rabbit named Mister Cabot and lunged the Wabbajack at the roaring dragon, firing another red shot at it. In an instant the dragon turned back into the harmless rabbit.

Bishop stopped his running and threw his hands to his knees, catching his breath. Rona held a hand to her chest, trying to calm her nerves again.

Sheogorath's voice exploded around them, as if he were right there with them, "That's it! You've got the hang of it now! I'll just be taking Mister Cabot back. The Shivering Isles does need their tax collector you know," the rabbit vanished in a purple light and Sheogorath continued, "Well look at that, it seems you've headed down the path of abjection. Unfortunately for you, your dear mother suffered from bouts of severe depression, often sailing awayon a river of hopelessness and despair. Let's see if you can be the light in her life instead of the cause of her miseries."

They both turned and looked down the dark path. Rona grasped Bishop's hand. She needed his strength more than ever now. He gave her a reassuring squeeze and they entered into the fog and came into a clearing. It was like a scene from her childhood but in a play format, where a piece of the old cottage stood, as it once was, run down and much smaller. It sat in the middle of the forest clearing.

The piece of the cottage shown was the central room, holding her mother's old bed with its faded and torn quilt, the small kitchen pressed against the dirty windows and there was a hearth in the middle of the room between the bed and the kitchen. The whole place was a mess with unwashed pots and pans on the counters, dirty dishes stacked on the dining table and clothes strewn carelessly around the wood floors.

Claudia was curled up in the bed, the side of her face pressed against a pillow. She looked like she hadn't bathed in days and her eyes were red like she'd been crying nonstop, her rose colored hair was a tangled mess and she looked absolutely miserable.

Off to the side, where the woman's gaze lazily fell was a tiny toddler with bright strawberry locks and pointed ears. She wore a dirty blue dress and an even dirtier cloth nappy that hadn't been changed in who knows how long. She sat amongst a pile of papers with bits of charcoal strewn around the floor. Her hands and face were covered in black smudges as she attempted to draw on the papers but kept putting the charcoal in her mouth as toddlers often did with anything and everything.

It was Rona when she was only two years old. She had no memory of this and wished she hadn't seen it now. The sound of horse hooves on the ground caught their ears and they turned to see a slightly younger Serlas trod into the scene on a black and white palomino. He looked relatively the same except instead of wearing his usual blue mages robes he had on a deep purple. He dismounted and gathered some books and other items under his arms and went around the cottage as though it didn't have a giant hole in it where they could easily view the interior. He entered through the front door and was absolutely appalled by the scene.

"GODS CLAUDIA!" He roared. She didn't budge an inch though, clearly too depressed to care or notice. He threw his books and other items down on a spare table and the minute he saw Rona chewing on a piece of charcoal went over to her and snatched it from her mouth. He lifted the tiny girl, holding her out away from himself, seeing she needed a changing and threw Claudia a furious look, though her gaze remained steadily in the same spot.

"Get out of bed, now."

Claudia remained steadfastly absent from the entire situation.

"Damn it Claudia, you cannot keep doing this! How am I supposed to teach at the College if I can't even trust you to be responsible and look after our daughter! I cannot do this by myself! I need you to pull yourself together!"

Finally, she seemed to slowly roll into the present as she looked up at him and muttered, "Nary a point to livin' if ah cannae even be who ah am."

"And what's that then? A warrior? You can still be a warrior and a mother Claudia. Plenty of women do so – Grella, for Talo's sake! She's a mother to Aela and still works with the Companions! And she's perfectly responsible as well. You have to at least try! You cannot keep getting swept up in these – fits of yours or whatever in Oblivion they are!"

"What would yeh know about eht? Yeh don have any idea how it feels. Damned blasted elf yeh are," she went red with fury then and glared up at him, "Yeh ded it to mae. Eht's YER FAULT she's ehven here!"

"Oh stop it," he scowled at her, "You were just as damn drunk as I was that night. You cannot keep blaming me for it and you shouldn't! She's your daughter damn it, she's here now. Throwing around blame won't change a thing about it. Now get up and go wash yourself and get dressed," he glanced around at the room and grumbled, "I'll take care of the mess, as I always do."

He waved a hand and everything in the home started to move about with his magic, dishes started cleaning themselves, papers picked themselves up off the floor and clothes began folding themselves. He carried Rona over to a wash basin looking to bathe her. Claudia rolled out of bed, wearing only an old nightgown and shrieked at him, throwing herself forward, hands balled into fists as a floating tankard bobbed against her head, "AH TOLD YEH NO MAGIC IN THE HOUSE! EHT'S EVIL! MAKE IT STOP! MAKE IT STOP!"

She grabbed the tankard out of the air and attempted to throw it at him but it only made it partway across the room before slowly stopping to continue floating. This only served to enrage her more as she tried to throw more objects and destroy the home to no avail.

Serlas sighed deeply and just rolled his eyes at her as he started to undress baby Rona from her filthy clothes. Claudia wanted a reaction it seemed so she grabbed an old sword off the wall and ran at him, shrieking. Serlas didn't even flinch, clearly he'd been through this before and he simply waved a hand casting a greenish spell at her. Claudia went limp, dropping the sword to the floor and falling to her knees. She started to sob hysterically, "Eht's not right! Yeh promised yeh wouldna do eht!"

"I only use magic on others in self-defense. You already know this," he didn't even look at her as he started bathing Rona in the basin, the toddler was as oblivious as ever to the entire situation, looking quite happy and bubbly as she splashed the water around her. "And seeing as how you've tried to kill me for the hundredth odd time now, I will continue to pacify you as needed."

Claudia just sobbed miserably, "Ah hate you. Ah hate her. Ah don wannae live anymore…"

Rona couldn't stand to watch it anymore. She was shaking all over and Bishop held her, trying to be her rock. She pointed the Wabbajack out and imagined something happier. She imagined what she'd always wanted. She fired a shot at her mother and the whole scene changed. The cottage was clean, her mother was happy and dutiful, bobbing her infant daughter up and down on her lap and making silly faces at the cheery child as Serlas returned and greeted them just as happily. It was a beautiful scene now, one out of a dream. And it wasn't real. She didn't see the point of it.

Sheogorath's voice boomed around them again, "Well now that's something to crow about. With Claudia loving herself once again and finally up and about being a responsible mother she's found balance in her life. You're moving right along. We'll both be home in no time!"

They turned away from the lie and headed back down the path. Bishop looked over at her, but Rona just stared at the ground. He made to say something but thought better of it and bit his tongue.

They crossed the clearing again where Sheogorath sat at the table, this time he was carving into a mammoth nose with a knife and taking a bite with a fork. He waved it cheerily at her as they pressed on toward the brighter side of the strange forest.

They looked around at the beautiful forest and the pink colored clouds. It was very whimsical and joyful. Rona wondered if there was going to be a happier scene this time… she hoped deep inside it would be.

Sheogorath's voice permeated the air again as he said, "Ah, now this is a fun path. Welcome to the path of mania. Claudia dreamed of many things you know. She dreamed of conquering the elves and the Aldmeri Dominion, stamping out their clutches on her precious homeland. She sought to be a warrior greater than Talos himself, aiming to rise to godhood and crush those beneath her. And at times she even desired simpler things, such as being a traveling minstrel, one whose voice was more beautiful than the rest, wanting to be worshipped for her loveliness by the fools and the commoners. Her delusions of grandeur even fell onto the shoulders of her only daughter. And as she often lost touch with reality I found it to be so terribly entertaining."

As they entered the new clearing they found a ten year-old Rona dressed in a bright yellow dress, her hair tied up in a matching yellow ribbon and wearing a warm, brown fur cloak over her shoulders. She had a small dagger strapped to her side, the one her mother had given her. She followed Claudia up a steep hill through a forest towards some Dwemer Ruins.

Rona looked exhausted and asked in her young, child's voice, "Ama, are we almost there?"

Claudia snapped back at her, "Whut did ah tell yeh 'bout callin' me that? Do ah look like a damned knife ear to yeh?"

Rona scowled at her mother's back and said, "You told me not to call you mother just the other day. What am I supposed to call you?"

Claudia waved a hand back at her, "Jus' call me Claudia."

"Call you by your name?" Rona said incredulously.

Claudia stopped at the top of the hill and a wide smile sprawled across her face, "Lookit tha. We're here now. Gonna teach yah how to fight ah am. Train yah up to be a real warrior, hmm?" She glanced over at her ten year-old daughter, looking wildly excited, "An' no damn overbearing father o' yours to stop meh either!"

Little Rona took a breath and put on a brave face as the two of them walked along and entered through the enormous metal doors, going into the ruins together.

Rona actually recalled feeling somewhat excited at the time, going on this adventure with her mother. She'd never experienced real fighting before and it really interested her to know exactly what her mother did as a warrior. She was so much like Nelkir, wanting to prove herself, but most of all wanting to win her mother's approval.

They crept down the dark path together, Claudia had her duel edged battle axe drawn and at the ready and Rona held her dagger in hand. It wasn't long before they encountered some ancient dwemer automatons. Three dwarven spiders came out of holes in the walls and skittered around the stone floor, patrolling and building up their electric sparks inside their domed heads.

Claudia took out two of them and then encouraged Rona to take on the last one as it scrambled around. She approached it anxiously and took a swipe at it with her blade, she missed and it swiped back, scraping its sharp metal prong against her hand, cutting her and drawing blood. She screamed and jumped back.

"Ah know yeh can do eht girl! Yeh take after yeh Mam yeh know! Donnae be afraid! Stick eht!"

Rona lunged at it again and hit it against the electrical dome. It sparked and then exploded throwing her backward as she screamed. Her arms had been singed from the electrical shock, but she'd beaten the thing and felt somewhat proud as her mother cheered her on, "Ah knew yeh had it ehn yah girl! Thas mah little Rona! Next yeh know well beh takin' eht to the Dominion and stickin' eht to those right bastards!"

Claudia cackled jubilantly and lost in her own little fantasy didn't see the falmer creeping in. Little Rona was busy healing her wounds with her advanced healing magic, the only school of magic she ever excelled in, as a falmer crept up right behind her and threw its hand over her mouth, stifling her shriek before it drug her down into a hole into the ground, taking her into its lair.

Bishop breathed and looked over at the present day Rona, standing there reliving this nightmare in full, vivid detail from an entirely new perspective. "Ladyship..." he whispered. She held still, watching it all, already knowing what would happen.

Claudia was high off her own mind, in a state of mania as a falmer crept up and stabbed her in the side with a twisted dagger. She was brought crashing back down to reality in that moment and became enraged that something so beneath her could cause her harm. She roared furiously and began to swing her battleaxe wildly, killing the falmer that were attempting to do the same to her.

As they lay in sliced up heaps, dead around her she cried out, "Do yeh see Rona dear!? Thas how yeh fight a battle!"

But the only thing in response was Little Rona's echoing screams of, "Mother! Help! Mother please! Help me! No - no! Get away! EEEK!"

Claudia spun about, realizing her daughter wasn't there and she panicked, "Rona? Rona dear where are yeh? RONA!? RONA!?" She swept through the ruins searching for her, following her desperate screams until she found her, little Rona being wound up in some sort of sticky sac by chaurus reapers and looking absolutely horrified as tears streamed down her cheeks. She screamed, "MOTHER! HELP! HELP!"

Claudia crushed the monsters swiftly and easily with her axe before setting her daughter free. She fell into her mother's arms sobbing hysterically and begged her to take her out of that place. Then she saw them, the falmer stalking in, surrounding them, getting ready to attack and she whispered fearfully, "Mother, they're back... Mother?"

In her fury Claudia had completely ignored the gaping wound in her side. Bleeding heavily, she was very pale and her breaths were short. The petite warrior slumped over, holding her side and Rona looked on terrified as the falmer hissed at them. She held her small hands out and summoned all the power she had within herself to cast flames at the creatures, trying to be brave and save them both.

She cast fire over them all, sending them scurrying away in terror. When she was sure they'd gone she turned back to her mother and knelt beside her. "Mother, I can heal you. Please show me."

Claudia unclipped her steel plated chest armor and hiked her furs up to reveal the gash in her side. Rona pressed her healing hands to it and Claudia winced painfully. The young girl was still not used to healing others and didn't know how to do it without causing pain. Claudia took it well enough however, as it closed over.

Then she beamed at her daughter, clearly feeling much better, or just high on her mind again as she said, "Thas ahmazing. Yeh're ahmaing Rona! Yeh sent 'em all scramblin'! Did yeh see eht? Ah don care what yeh're father says! Yeh're the most powerful mage of 'em all! Come on then - les see what more trouble weh can get ourselves into, eh?"

Her mother stood up, putting her armor back on and made to go deeper into the tunnels when Rona cried, "No! I want to go back!"

Her mother looked at her, "Why would weh go back? Weh're not don here girl."

"NO!" Rona screamed at her, "Those things are still here! I'm going back to the inn! I don't want to do this anymore! It's not safe and... you still need to heal, please." She'd started crying again.

"Bah!" Her mother threw a hand out, "Don be a fraidy cat. Weh're powerful warriors weh are. Come from a long line of 'em yeh know. I won be givin' up that easily! Give up if yeh wan, I cannae stop yeh. But yeh dear ol' Mam is goin tae conquer the world."

Claudia left her there and Rona ran all the way back without her mother, leaving the ruins behind and not looking back. She waited at the inn for days and days and days with no sign of her mother. A month went by and she had no more money. She was convinced that her mother had died and she begged the inn keeper to let her write to her father so that he could come collect her and pay for her stay there. The kind woman agreed and let her stay for another month at no charge until Serlas arrived to get her.

Rona saw another side to this story, one that she'd never known. Her mother's side. Claudia was successful in clearing out the dwemer ruins, but as she returned to the inn several days later she stopped herself from entering. She was falling again, into a pit of despair, reality sinking in and realizing that she'd nearly killed her daughter with her actions. She turned away from the door and left, tears streaming her cheeks. She was saving her daughter from herself.

Rona wouldn't have changed it. She couldn't think of any way to improve this scene and she said so, "I won't change it. She did the right thing."

Sheogorath's voice boomed around them, "Hmph! Well that's hardly entertaining at all Dragonborn. Go on, give it a try at least. Humor me!"

She sighed and jut the staff at the scene, turning it into an absurd tale of her becoming Dragonborn at the age of ten and utterly destroying the falmer in the dwemer ruins with the power of her voice, making her mother more proud than ever. They were both great and famous warriors traveling the world over together and actually enjoying each other's company. What a nice fantasy, she thought as she turned away from another lie.

Bishop had been so quiet the whole time and Rona finally asked him as they walked down the path together, "So... what do you think about all this?"

He sighed, "I just want to get this all over with as soon as possible. Get the hell out of this Daedric realm of torture."

She couldn't agree more. She'd truly had her fill of her mother's madness.

Back in the clearing they found Sheogorath slow dancing with a draugr. The creature groaned slowly as he spun it out and went to yank it back in as its arm tore off and the creature flopped onto the ground pathetically.

"Whoops! So sorry about that Matilda," he grinned at Rona and chuckled, "Old flame of mine. Very light on her feet!"

Bishop's eye was twitching as he scowled at the scene and muttered, "Need to get the fuck out of here..."

Rona would have laughed if she didn't feel so miserable about everything the Mad God was showing her.

They turned down the final path, the one where the two worlds collided, mania and abjection, splintering together down the road, looking like they were trying to consume one another.

As they reached the clearing it was all very overwhelming to her. They were shown snippets of Claudia's life from the time she was a young woman working as a farmhand on her parents' farm and even then she'd had wild dreams of greater things. When her father told her she was to wed a young man from Helgen she ran away that very same night, taking the old dagger with her, the same one she'd given Rona when she was ten and that Nelkir carried now.

Claudia joined the Companions but she struggled to learn to fight as a warrior not only because she was inexperienced but because of how much she suffered with her mania and depression. Grella took her under her wing and did her best to help her. They became close friends despite all the obvious trouble Claudia caused her.

They saw the night Claudia swept Serlas off to her room at the inn and then her terror over realizing she was with child months later and furious at herself for laying with an altmer, the one race of people she thoroughly detested more than any other, when she wasn't drunk off ale of course. They watched her try to nurse her infant daughter and how she grew furious with it all damning the elf child to Oblivion and hating her one moment but then fawning over her proudly the next at every new thing she did.

Back and forth Claudia was pulled between these two worlds and they were utterly out of her control. They saw it all, the birth of Nelkir and how she knew she had to give him up, because she couldn't do to her son what she'd done to her daughter. They watched Rona's return when she was nineteen years old, trying to make amends with the woman, desperately wanting to know her. Claudia couldn't cope, it was too much expectation, and completely out of her comfort zone, so she left Rona at the farm and didn't come back, disappearing off on a wild adventure, trying to forget it all.

And then she watched her mother die. First suffering for months with bone-break fever until she scrawled one letter and sent it off with a courier, to fetch her only heir and not a day had gone by when she scrawled another one, Illia watching over her all the while, before she succumbed and her spirit left the world of Nirn.

Finally, Rona screamed, "WHY ARE YOU SHOWING ME THIS!? WHY!?"

Sheogorath appeared before them in a wisp of purplish light and said, "Well, you can heal her can't you? Go on, then. Use the Wabbajack!"

Rona wanted it to be over so she looked at her mother's much younger self, when she was still just a farmhand. She shunted the staff at the woman and healed her. She made her well, no misery, no mania, just a normal, content woman. She watched as this new woman went off and married that young man from Helgen and had a happy family. She never ran away from home, she never joined the Comapanions or met a certain elf way up in Winterhold one fateful evening. She never had Rona or Nelkir and there was no Dragonborn and then Alduin came and consumed the world.

"Do you see! It's because of her madness that you are even here Dragonborn. Without my influences your mother never would have gone along as she did and you," he poked a finger to her forehead, "my dear sweet chosen one, would not be here."

Rona took a shuddering breath and said, "But why show me?"

"So you can be grateful! You should be thanking me Rona dear, after all you wouldn't be here without me," he winked at her.

"Akatosh would have just chosen someone else to be the Dragonborn," she said plainly.

Sheogorath crossed his arms and frowned, "Well be a spoil sport why don't you! You really need to lighten up Dragonborn."

Bishop shot back, "Kind of hard to do that when you're showing her the most traumatizing parts of her life."

Sheogorath got a glint in his eye as he looked at Bishop, "What do you say we take a trip into old Torban's head, just for funsies?"

Bishop frowned deeply and slowly shook his head, "Let's not and say we did. Can we leave now?"

Sheogorath huffed, "Fine, fine! I suppose I'll honor my end of the bargain. So congratulations! You're free to go!" They stared at him expectantly and he said again, "I have been known to change my mind. So go. Really."

They looked at each and turned away from the Mad God, walking back and listening as he muttered at the happy Claudia with her perfect fake family, "Ah, Claudia Agahild Windsleaf, once a tormented mother to a living legend and now so boringly sane. I always knew she had it in her! Well, I suppose it's back to the Shivering Isles. The trouble Haskill can get into while I'm gone simply boggles the mind... Let's make sure I'm not forgetting anything. Clothes? Check. Beard? Check! Luggage? Luggage! Now where did I leave my luggage?"

The fog drifted in thickly enveloping the both of them and taking them out of that horrible place. They found themselves back inside the Pelagius Wing in their normal clothes and had all their weapons returned to them.

Bishop turned to her and asked, "How you doing?"

She glanced at him, "Okay I guess. Glad to be... back."

"Me too," he said then sighed, "Let's get out of here."

She grasped his arm. "No, I still want to see it... your little, nook?"

He chuckled, "Really? You just watched your mother's entire life and all her awful choices and you want to go see the alphabet I scratched into a wall twenty years ago?"

"Yeah," she said sincerely. She wanted to do anything else that wasn't thinking of everything she'd seen that night.

He shrugged. "As my lady commands."

She followed him further on into the Pelagius wing until they came into another room much like the one at the entryway, with piles of cloaked furniture. Some of it had obviously been set up for a family living there at one point, with a large table and too many chairs pressed next to one another. Some of the sheets had been laid out and fashioned into bedding for the occupants on the floor as well. In one corner of the room was a small bookshelf placed partway from the wall, so that it could serve as a divider from the rest of the sleeping spaces.

Bishop smirked at the little corner where a pile of dusty pillows and old sheets lay. He tugged her over and they sat down in front of the corner.

He ran his fingers across the old marks he'd left on the wall, a roughly carved alphabet he'd made for a little boy eager to learn to read. He had a smile playing at his lips as he looked it over and then he glanced at the bookshelf and laughed, reaching out for one of the books. "Can't believe it's still here," he said as he pulled the worn book from the wall.

It was a beat up copy of Withershins. He thumbed through the pages as Rona leaned her head against his shoulder watching him reminisce about his past. "Jules made me read this to him almost every night. It really helped him memorize the alphabet, then one night he picked it up and read it to me. At first I honestly couldn't believe it, that he was actually reading this book to me when just the day before he was struggling to read the first page of Beggar. Then I figured out that he'd memorized the whole thing word for word because of how many times I'd read it to him!" Bishop laughed with a broad grin still sprawled across his face, "Ah... That sly little fox."

Rona smiled too and said, "I wish I could have met him."

He leaned his head against hers and wrapped an arm around her waist, "Me too, Ladyship... me too."

The two of them were getting very good at playing that game. The, 'something awful just happened so let's pretend it didn't' game. It was this unspoken thing between them every time. Just stop talking about it and move on and that's what they did.

The two left the Pelagius Wing and stepped outside the Blue Palace, it was dark out and Bishop glanced up at the moon looking confused, "Huh... could have sworn it'd be later."

As she looked over the sky she calculated that it was still early evening, nearly eight. She said, "We might still have time to make that dinner Tullius invited us to."

Bishop frowned but then his stomach growled and he said, "Welp. Can't argue with that."

She laughed, "Yeah, let's go get some free food!"

They walked along the cobblestone path heading up towards Castle Dour and Bishop asked, "How'd you understand her?"

Rona gave him a side-eyed glance, "You mean the accent?"

"Yeah, that jibber-jabbering nonsense. Yeh, cannae, dannae... ugh! What even is that?"

Rona laughed, "Claudia's mother's side of the family were druids. They all talk like that."

He shook his head, "Damn am I glad you never picked up that accent, I hate to say it Ladyship but that's definitely where I would have drawn the line."

She laughed loudly and punched him on the arm playfully, "Such an ass!"

He chuckled at her and they leaned into one another as they walked, his arm wrapped over her shoulders and hers wrapped to his waist.

Rona honestly didn't know how she'd ever get through the sheer amount of insanity in her life without him. They built their shield up together, blocking out every awful thing crossing their path and learning to let it roll right off of them. They would get through this together and they'd walk through dragon's fire and maybe even a few Daedric realms of torture, to get there.