Jul

Lucius

Dorthe didn't have it in her to walk too far or too long, weakened as she was from starving in the wild. Her legs and arms looked like twigs, though the rashes and scabs up that had covered her arms and neck were now mostly faded away. Soon, she would be healthy again, though that time was still a few days off. Solitude, meanwhile, was right in front of us.

Dorthe had been adamant that she walk up the hill herself, when we'd been at the base. She was just like her dad, her mother, or her cousin: strong willed and proud. Unfortunately, her stubborn desire to support herself when she saw her only surviving family couldn't quite make up for the shattered state of her body. Barely halfway up, she collapsed to the ground. When I'd tried to help her up, she had told me not to help her and began to drag herself up the path.

"You have to let her at least try," Serana had told me when I'd tried to help despite the protests. "It means a lot to stand on your own two feet or to even crawl on your hands and knees to get something. If she fails, she learns her limits. But even then, every step's a victory."

I glanced at the woman dragging herself up the back half of the hill. This young woman had been through so much. "There's also a strength in knowing when you have to rely on others," I said, looking over at Serana as I did. "I..."

"Dorthe," I said, walking towards her. "At least use something to help you stand... here." I held my hand out to help her stand and remain steady.

The young woman stared up at me for a moment, face covered in dirt. "Look, you've been running on adrenaline for weeks. Hadvar wouldn't let me live it down if I let you do this all by yourself."

Dorthe glared for a moment longer. "No, he probably wouldn't," she finally replied. She took my hand and let me help her to her feet. She stumbled forward for a moment, but caught her footing. "Let's go."

"Let's," I replied with a smile, slowly walking up the hill with Serana and that young, powerful woman.

The way up was slow and shaky. Dorthe, even with my help, was barely summoning the strength to drag her feet, one before the other. But she was. She was making her way, standing tall, up towards Solitude. Dorthe, in an odd way, reminded me of myself; I had fought in struggled when I was about her age, after my parents' deaths. I was alone, but I did not have the luxury of anyone who still cared about me. I was happy that the young woman wouldn't have to experience that as I had.

"Hold! State your business!" one of the guards called as we neared. I cocked my head to the side as the soldier approached. Behind his helmet, I was sure his eyes had widened in self castigation. "Ah, Thane Atmoran. My apologies, just orders from the queen."

"Then you do well following them," I replied with a disarming smile. The soldier's shoulders seemed to fall a little, easing out of attention. "I am here on... well, I suppose it is somewhere between personal and official business. Could you please get word to Hadvar that I'm waiting for him in my home? Tell him it's of the utmost import."

"Of course," the soldier said, slamming his fist into his chest in salute. He glanced at Dorthe and nodded before looking over at Serana and shivering slightly. Finally, he nodded his head at the Vampire woman, who was already rolling her eyes. He turned to the other guards. "Open the gate!"

I turned as Serana began speaking. "You ready to see your family again?" she asked Dorthe, a hint of jealous longing in her voice. Despite everything, she wanted her father and mother to be like Hadvar was for Dorthe – return to her, whole.

I stared sadly at Serana for a moment before catching her eye. She shrugged, knowing what was on my mind and telling me that it was merely the way things were. I doubted she completely felt that way, and I was again reminded of my talk with her. She still cared for her father, then, in that moment. Could she kill him? Could I if it meant losing her?

Dorthe nodded and we walked into Solitude, Serana and I shoving the dark thoughts from our minds as we led the girl, finally, to her surviving family.

Fahiil

Thera

When I stalked into the main room of the Thieves' Guild's Ragged Flagon, the entire group of larcenous criminals looked towards me and cheered. My use of the Skeleton Key, of which I was still attempting to figure out how to truly use, had gathered much loot for them and they were enjoying a certain... renaissance. They were still cursed by Nocturnal, of course, but it's not like they knew that. And on top of that, they were still the most skilled thieves in the province. They had their uses and they would be maintained as long as they did.

"Thera , what are you doing here?" Vex asked, glaring at me from her usual spot. The corners of her lips dragged up. "Who do I get to steal from today?"

"Oy, no, it's going to be me," Mallory said as I got closer, sliding out of his chair and smirking at the woman. He grinned, a slimy thing that made me want to slit his throat, but he was just too damn good at his job. "Unless you'd rather make a trade?"

"Unfortunately, it is going to be Vex," I said, rubbing his shoulder and forcing a little Vampire Magick into the action. "Vex is the specialist at breaking in. She's the one who's going to be able to get what I need. And I'm going to need you here to keep an eye on everything while she's out."

"Ha. Serves you right," Vex grinned at Delvin, who began to growl and mumble angrily to himself while he went to go get some mead. Vex just smirked and watched him go, still mumbling to himself. She turned to me after a moment. "What you got?"

"How would you feel about running the first job in Cyrodiil?" I asked her, eliciting a huge grin. "This is a job for me, personally. It's big and important. Something I... desperately need."

"Well, I'm the best," Vex replied bluntly. "Where is it? What is it?"

"There's a very special necklace – an amulet – that the Synod somehow got their hands on. It's in the shape of a bat skull, two rubies in place of the eyes. You can take whatever else you wish from them – in fact, I would encourage it."

Vex whistled. "The Synod," she said, impressed. "They have a lot of old stuff. Expensive, Magicky shit. And you want... a necklace?"

"Old, Magicky necklace," I responded, earning an eye roll from the Imperial. "It's important, powerful."

"What's it for?" Vex asked, pushing off from the pile of crates and

"Why, killing a monster," I supplied, fangs flashing slightly in the darkness.

Jul

Fahiil

Dorthe was a surprisingly clean eater. Her time starving on the road had only served to make her appreciate food all the more, which I thought seemed odd. Serana said it had been the same for her, at first. She hadn't had a drink in centuries, so when she came out she'd wanted to savor whatever she could get. A little disturbing of an idea, in retrospect, but I understood what she meant.

But, of course, she was still eating me into the poor house. I had a standing order to fill up the stores of Proudspire Manor every few weeks – before the Vampire thing started I'd had to stay there to help with Queen's new government and Tullius' attempts at keeping the peace. When the next shipment came in, I always had a few servants organize a city-wide feast. Looks like this month's wasn't going to happen – the young woman was eating it all herself.

Serana, being her usual Vampire self, was barely even picking at her plate of food – something that was laid out only to make Dorthe more comfortable. After all, Serana's tastes ran a little more red than the rest of us. I was full, three plates in. "You should... take a break," I suggested as the young woman devoured her eighth bowl of chicken stew. "If you eat too much, you might hurt yourself."

"Well, the healers can worry about that if it comes to it," she responded as she jammed another loaf of bread into her mouth. Her next words came out completely muffled by the food in her mouth.

"Thane Atmoran, you have a visitor," Jordis said, walking in tot he room. She, like all my housecarls at this point, was wearing a set of glistening ebony armor. From what I'd heard, the Thanes and Jarls across the province called them the Ebon Warriors. A silly name, though one that they all apparently liked.

"Thank you Jordis. Send him in," I said, bowing my head slightly. She saluted, slamming her fist to her chest then moving away. I grinned at Dorthe. "He's here."

"Okay, so what did you want to see me abou-" Hadvar asked as he walked in. He froze and stared at the young woman sitting at my dining room table. He looked up at me, then back down at her, tears starting to stream from his eyes. "D-Dorthe?"

"Hadvar!" his cousin shouted. She shot up and wobbled. For a moment, I thought her legs were going to fail her, but her iron will held on. It seemed hard to believe this was the same child I had met almost three years earlier who had been so angry at her mother because she wouldn't let the girl train to be a blacksmith with Alvor. I frowned sadly as she ran to embrace her cousin. Despite everything, it was bittersweet without Alvor or Sigrid there. Alvor was dead and Sigrid... well, even if she was 'alive,' it didn't seem like Vampires turned by Lamae were exactly in control of themselves.

"How did you find her?" Hadvar asked, still clutching at his last surviving family member.

I smiled and jerked my head over towards Serana. "She did," I said.

Hadvar turned to Serana. "I... Thank you, so much. I – thank you. Thank you so much." He put his cheek on top of his cousin's head, barely holding back the tears that were so clearly evident in his eyes. "Thank you Serana. I – Gods above Bless you."

Serana blushed and glanced at the ground before brushing her hair from her face – it was longer now, flowing down and pulled around to rest below her left shoulder, her raven tresses like a river that, along with her red cheeks, made her pale skin and glimmering eyes even more striking. "It – It was an accident," she said.

"Fate then. Divines bless you both," Hadvar said, his voice cracking and warbling as he clutched his cousin closer like she was going to disappear into thin air if he didn't. The tears began to stream down his cheeks and into Dorthe's hair. He began to sob, as did Dorthe. "Thank you..."

Zuspein

"Okay. The High Queen's army is assembled. Ready to fight if you just give us the where and when," Hadvar said. As soon as Dorthe had fallen asleep, exhausted from her weeks of trials and tribulations suddenly ending in a blaze of relief and joy, the three of us had sat down to talk about the coming battle. "A thousand proud Nords prepared to defend their homeland."

"Many of them will die," I said quietly, still coming to grips with the idea.

"The alternative is that the world dies. None of them are prepared for that," Hadvar replied, placing his hand on my shoulder from across the circular table. He looked over at Serana. "Can we trust your father's forces?"

Serana snorted. "No. He's going to betray us as soon as the battle's over," she said, running a hand through her hair. "He'll try to kill everyone – everything – not allied with him."

"Which means we're going to have to keep a secret among almost fifteen hundred soldiers who are going to need to turn on the Vampires at a moment's notice," I finished with a sigh. Through my mind ran my memories of my last attempt at allying with Thera, specifically the death of Paarthurnax. Honor was a fool's prize when in battle with her, because she had none of her own. The only constant in her life would be her desire to betray all around her. "How can we manage that? Even if it weren't already a given that there are Thralls within every level of the military."

"So you can't trust us?" Hadvar asked, slightly offended.

"No. We can't trust them," I said, frowning and tenting my hands in front of my face. "Yet. But we can trust Sybil. Have her track down any Thralls seeded in those thousand men, ask her as a favor for me. She'll do it in a – " I glanced at Serana out of the corner of my eye, a slight and amused smirk running across my face. "– heartbeat."

"Okay, but... checking a thousand men?" Hadvar asked. "That could take forever!"

"Group it by twenties. It'll take a while, and it might take a lot – send for whatever Sybil asks for from the College and sign that it's for me. I'll pay for it all later. After all, adventuring leads to an obscene amount of Septims in a short period of time."

Hadvar looked around at Proudspire Manor's expensive furnishings, adorned with interlocking images of dragons and Suns. "Really? I couldn't tell," he said with a deadpan glare. He shook his head. "Fine. I'll get Sybil Stentor on it; I'd do anything to get back at those milk-drinkers who took my family."

"Good. Then all we need to worry about is Luc here trusting someone who will obviously betray him," Serana said. She began grinning at me when I glared at her. "Hey, I call them like I've heard the stories."

"I've learned from my mistakes," I retorted.

"And here you are, running into battle next to Thera once again. Trusting her with the bow," Serana replied. She crossed her arms and scoffed. "Learned from our mistakes yet, have we?"

I was silent. She had been joking and yet... Serana's face became quiet, questioning. Worried. "No... maybe I haven't," I mumbled. I smiled and stood up suddenly. "Time for us to go. We have a war hammer to find and a monster to slay, and we're already days behind."