A/N: Well, I'm finally back to this. I am so sorry that it has taken me so long, but a lot of things have been happening recently. First I had appendicitis and had to have it removed, then I started my A levels at sixth form and more or less collapsed under the increased workload.

Anyway, onto the story. We see Falin's trial and acceptance into the Companions in this one. Also there are two movie quotations in this chapter, anyone who gets them right wins a virtual cookie. Get them both right, win a whole virtual jar.

Rannveig's fast did not go well. Our first indication that everything was not normal should have come when we attacked by apologetic ghosts outside the ruins. I had been down numerous Nordic ruins in my time as a Companion, and usually they were guarded by draugr or skeletons, occasionally bandits, but never ghosts. Falin's approach to ghosts was fire, lots and lots of fire. Once we had finished dealing with the ghosts, the exterior of the ruin looked like the descriptions of Oblivion I had heard when I was younger. "Falin, was all that fire really necessary?" I asked her. She shook her head, so apparently not. "So why do it then?" She made a series of gestures accompanied by a grin which I interpreted as 'because it's fun'. I groaned to myself, I was about to go into a Nordic ruin with a pyromaniac. This was going to be fun.

Inside the ruin, it was actually rather quiet at first, no more ghosts apologising for being 'forced' to attack us or claiming that they didn't want to do it. The first room seemed like it was still outside, covered in flowers and other plant life. The second room contained a ghost that was ripped apart by a large fireball. I turned to see Falin uncorking a blue bottle and downing the contents, shuddering slightly. I didn't need to understand Falin's body language to surmise that the potion probably didn't taste like mead. The third room that we entered contained another ghost, this one Falin killed with a blast of flames to the face. We continued towards the large wall at the end of the room, with a chest in front of it. Falin spotted a path of to the side of the room and headed towards it. Heading down this path, we encountered yet another ghost which died in fire before it could even apologise for attacking us. Falin then flipped a switch, opening a gate which led to an area of the ruin containing cells.

As we went further into the room we could hear two voices, one which I identified as belonging to Ahlam. She seemed to be pleading with the owner of the other voice to let her go. She sounded terrified. The other voice roughly told her that she would not be leaving, that she was his to do with as he pleased. Ahlam's sobs at this pronouncement galvanised both of us into action. As we rounded the corner, Falin's fireball brought the man to his knees, and my skyforge steel sword pierced his chest, and his heart, killing him. Ahlam was now cowering at the back of the cage in the middle of the room.

I inspected the door to the cage, and identified it as having an expert level lock on. I had some small skill in lockpicking, but nowhere near enough to open this lock. I turned to Falin, "Do you have any skills at lockpicking?" I asked her. She motioned me away from the lock, looked at it, glanced up at me, smiled slightly, then placed her hand flat against the lock. The lock flared red, then white-blue, as Falin alternated between fire and ice magic, heating and cooling the lock until eventually it shattered and the door swung open. Ahlam was still cowering against the back of the cage. Falin stepped backwards and motioned me forwards. I placed my hand on Ahlam's shoulder, she flinched backwards at my touch. "Ahlam," I spoke softly, "Ahlam, it's me, Ria. From the Companions. We're here to rescue you." She looked up at that.

"Ria?" she breathed, "Is he dead? Is that horrible man dead?" She sounded almost like lost little girl.

"He is," I assured her, "We saw to that, he won't be hurting you anymore." As I said that, I noticed a series of dark stains on Ahlam's clothing, and a large wound on her left forearm. I called Falin over and gestured to the wounds, she nodded and crouched over Ahlam, her hands flickering with golden healing light, sealing up the wounds on Ahlam's body. Once she had finished doing so, Ahlam passed out. Falin looked up at me and made a series of gestures that translated as 'We came, we saw, we kicked its ass.' I smiled.

"Yes, Falin, yes we did." I picked up Ahlam's unconscious body, whilst Falin searched the mage's body for anything valuable. She found a key and a book that bore the crest of the school of destruction which she flicked through, apparently fascinated by what was contained within. "Falin." She jolted out of her concentration, "Come on, we need to go." We headed down the passage on the right where we encountered another ghost which was dispatched by one of Falin's fireballs which seemed slightly more powerful than the ones she had been hurling around before. She then used the key that she had taken from the mage to open the iron door on the left. Behind the door we found a chest which contained, much to Falin's obvious delight, a set of adept destruction robes which she happily stored in her pack. We set off up the path towards the exit of the ruins, following the sound of the wind and the smell of fresh air.

When we arrived back in Whiterun, the first thing that we did was return Ahlam to her husband Nazeem who somehow managed to rein his natural snobbiness in for long enough to thank us and pay us. Then we headed towards Jorrvaskr to inform Vilkas of our success. As we reached Jorrvaskr, the main doors swung open, and Torvar ran out cursing. Falin promptly dived behind my back. I turned to stare at her, as I realised that Falin acted completely different when she wasn't around Nords. Her behaviour in Rannveig's fast had proven that much.

We entered the mead hall and were promptly greeted by the sight of Njada and Athis going at it again. I grinned at the sight, poor Athis, I didn't understand why he kept fighting Njada. It was quite sad actually, always watching him get his arse handed to him. At least those were my thoughts right up until he swept Njada's legs out from underneath her sending her crashing to the floor. The surrounding Companions were silent for a moment, then cheered Athis' success.

"Well done Athis, you finally beat her." Farkas called.

Vignar and his manservant, Brill were laughing at the pair of them, especially at the expression on Njada's face. Tilma was fussing over the mess that the two had made. Vilkas on the other hand looked thoughtful, as I drew nearer I heard him muttering to himself, "That looks a lot like what Ram-Ku did when he fought against me. Has he been teaching…" His voice trailed off as he noticed me and Falin standing there. "So," he asked, "How did it go?"

"Well…" I said, "I never want to explore a ruin filled with ghosts again, at least not if they're going to keep apologising for trying to kill me. But Falin did a good job, hardly needed any help from me. Although perhaps she needs to tone the destruction magic down a little bit." Falin smiled slightly at this.

"So you think she's got what it takes then?"

"Of course, she's not exactly a conventional, or traditional, member of the Companions, but she's got the spirit."

"Excellent, I'll go and inform Kodlak, and he can decide when we hold the ceremony." As Vilkas headed off in the direction of the living quarters, I realised that there was still no sign of Ram-Ku, Aela or Skjor, I idly wondered what they had had to do that had kept them away from Jorrvaskr.

I shrugged, it was probably a more difficult job seeing as how it had required three of them to take care of it. I walked over to Athis and started talking to him about his fight with Njada. I discovered that Vilkas was right, he had been taking lessons from Ram-Ku. "He just came up to me a couple of days ago and said that he had some advice that could help me with my fighting against Njada. Told me that with most brawlers, their weakness is their legs because they're too busy concentrating on the arms." He paused to take a swig of mead, "Then he started spouting some zen-like rubbish about everything starting from the bottom, made some comparison to trees. Then he swept my legs out from under me with his tail, told me to concentrate more, and then he started teaching me."

"So you got good enough to beat Njada then?"

He grinned viciously, reminding me slightly of Falin when she was flinging destruction magic about, "Oh yes. Who knows? Maybe now she'll be the one getting dumped on her arse every time a new blood walks in." He looked slightly pensive, "All my life growing up in Morrowind I was taught that Argonians were evil fuckers that couldn't be trusted with anything. I thought that they were an inferior race fiit only to serve. I was taught that they were murderous, invading bastards. I've never been so wrong in all my life. That 'stupid lizard' as my family used to call them, has helped me so much."

Vilkas interrupted anything else that Athis had been about to say as she stomped back up the stairs towards us, causing Falin to reassume her position behind my back. "Kodlak says to get ready out the back, we're going to be doing the initiation now."

"But what about Aela and Skjor?" I asked him, "Shouldn't all the circle be present for this? And what about Ram-Ku? I'm sure he'd want to see Falin's initiation."

Vilkas seemed to be searching for the right words, "Kodlak says that Skjor told him that the three of them would be gone for about three days, so far only one has passed. I do not think that we would want to deny Falin her honour any longer than is necessary?" He tried to smile reassuringly, but Falin remained stubbornly ensconced behind me. Vilkas looked slightly put off, but turned and walked out of the doors, stopping to get Farkas on the way.

I turned to Falin, "So, are you ready to properly join Ysgramor's Companions?"

She nodded and followed me out onto the training yard, where Kodlak, Vilkas and Farkas stood waiting, Farkas in his steel armour, his brother and the Harbinger clad in the Companions wolf armour. Kodlak began the ceremony, has old voice still strong, "Brothers of the Circle, today we welcome a new soul into our mortal fold. This woman has endured, has challenged, and has shown her valour. Who will speak for her?"

I remembered my initiation ceremony where Aela had stepped forward to speak for me. I remembered her words as though they were yesterday. I stepped forward, my heart in my mouth. "I will stand as witness to the courage of the soul before us." Soul… was that right? What if I screwed this up. Fortunately Kodlak continued with the ceremony so I must've gotten it at least vaguely right.

"Would you raise your shield in her defence?"

"I would stand at her back," I replied, "So that the world might never overtake us."

"And would you raise your sword in her honour?"

"It stands ready to meet the blood of her foes."

"And would you raise a mug in her name?"

I gulped, "I would lead the song of triumph as our mead hall reveled in her stories."

I glanced at Falin and almost giggled when I saw that she had gone blue at all the praise.

"Then the judgement of this Circle is complete." Kdolak finished, "Her heart beats with the fury and the courage that have united the Companions since the days of the distant green summers. Let it beat with ours, that the mountains may echo and our enemies tremble at the call."

I spoke in time with Vilkas and Farkas, "It shall be so." And thus the initiation ceremony was concluded. Vilkas and Farkas headed inside to start the drinking. Kodlak walked over to me and Falin.

"Well, girl," He said to Falin, "you're one of us now. I trust that you won't disappoint." Then he turned to me. "Well Ria, that was very well spoken. You knew the words and spoke them with great conviction."

"I meant every last word of them," I told him, "I would protect Falin's back in a fight, and I would trust her to protect mine." He nodded.

"You have wisdom and bravery far beyond your years girl." He said, "I think…" The last thought petered off. "I think that it is time to go inside and celebrate the acceptance of our newest shield-sister." He walked past us into the building. I turned to smile at Falin. It was looking like Jorrvaskr would once again ring out with drunken song. The two of us walked towards the doors, where we could already hear the sound of mead being drunk.

A/N: So what did you think? Please tell me your opinions. Also I'm thinking that maybe I need to bolster the ranks of the Companions slightly so if anyone wants to send me any OCs to that effect please do. Otherwise the Companions will start to fill up with characters from my mind, and most of those are slightly insane. Also ask any questions you may have and I will answer them.