A/N: Another month without a new chapter, and for that, I apologise. Unfortunately it will not get any better as I have exams coming up. Thank you to everyone who is still reading this, and thank you to everyone who has reviewed so far, especially 'kai'. Reviews help inspire authors like me to keep writing, so keep reviewing, thank you.
I have also realised that fanfiction does not like links. So from the previous chapter, to find the pictures of my OC's just search for 'TyphoonSignal10' on Deviantart.
"Ria! There you are." Liedan called out loudly from across the room, "I need to talk to you about shaving people while they're asleep."
Apparently I was responsible for the man's lack of hair. Right now though, I really didn't care about that, seeing as how I was currently facing the possibility of my life coming crashing down around me.
It seemed as though the couple had noticed Liedan's outburst, and had turned the attention away from Vilkas, and towards me.
"Ria?" The woman asked, "Ria, is that you?"
I sighed, it was over, I supposed, I had had a good three years out of it, but now it was finally over, they had found me, and I had nowhere to run.
"Yes, mother, it's me."
The woman, no, my mother, flung herself at me and wrapped her arms around me. My attention was drawn to the fact that she was now so much smaller than me, her arms so much thinner than mine. I supposed that this was mainly due to the fact that she hadn't spent the last three years killing things with heavy pieces of metal.
"Look at you, you've gotten so big." I was vaguely aware of the various expressions on my shield-siblings' faces. Falin appeared to be giggling nervously, Vilkas still looked furious, Farkas looked unbelievably confused, Liedan looked annoyed at the fact that his hair being shaved off had been overshadowed, Gakken and Njada both looked like they were going to be sick due to the fluffy nature of the display, Ram-Ku, Kodlak and Torvar were noticeably absent. I realised that actually, I hadn't seen Torvar since the previous night, he was probably down at the Bannered Mare or something.
"Um, yes mother, I am reliably informed that is what happens when you grow up." I was definitely nervous, I was letting my mouth run away with me. My mother laughed delicately.
"Oh, Ria, it's good to see that you still have your sense of humour." Then she looked at my armour, still slightly pungent from last night's, activities. "What in the name of the Divines are you wearing daughter? It looks like something that a mercenary would wear."
I grimaced, this was quite definitely not going to go down well with my merchant-class parents. "That would be because, I am, in fact, a mercenary, mother."
The look on my mother's face spoke volumes, she released me from her embrace. "Why on Nirn would you want to do that?" She asked, clearly shocked by the idea that anyone, much less her little girl, would ever want to make a living as a sword for hire. "If you wanted money we could quite easily have provided it for you, there was no need to do anything dangerous to get it."
I was left completely without a frame of reference, how was I supposed to explain the concept of enjoying fighting to a woman who believed very strongly that the very best forms of entertainment could be found within the walls of a major city, and could be obtained with the right amount of coin. It was into this void of conversation that my father chose to inject himself.
"Ria," He said, "I'm sure you are aware of how selfish your actions have been, of how badly they have reflected upon our family, and my company. No doubt this was merely a distraction to you, something for your wild youth, and I applaud you for that." I stood there, unable to think up a response. I was a warrior, a shield-sister of the famed Companions, I had wrestled with wild animals and hacked apart countless bandits with my sword. I was a reasonably-talented, I hoped, swordswoman, as long as said sword didn't require the use of two hands anyway, I had held my own in numerous fistfights, I was a grown woman in my own rights, Oblivion take it, I was even a mother. I was all of these things, but, put in front of my father, with his voice, and his moustache, and his piercing eyes, and I was a just little girl again, a little girl who has done something wrong and must now face the consequences of her actions.
"But now you must come home," My father continued.
"Yes, Dad." I mumbled, my gaze directed at my feet.
"Good, good," My father continued his speech, he had not been expecting any resistance from me, and he had not found any, everything was proceeding as planned. "I must admit that this is most fortuitous timing, you see, the count of Cheydinhal has decided that his son is finally ready to be married. You remember the count's son of course."
I did, I remembered Leonde Curio as a boy maybe five years older than me, come with his father to meet with the count of Bruma, having grown up surrounded mostly by Nords, I had considered him to be a weak-looking, snivelling little wretch, not that I had ever said so of course, thanks to the upbringing my parents had given me, I was far too polite to ever voice an opinion like that. My father had spoken to Falx, Leonde's father, count of Cheydinhal, and had come home that night to announce that he had made arrangements that would ensure the future of his, at the time, burgeoning trading company. He declared that in the fullness of time, I was to be married off to Leonde, in order to allow his company to expand to a second city. I had accepted my father's decision quietly, before asking to be excused to my bed, secretly I was screaming inside, I didn't know this boy, I hated him, he was weak and feeble. I had been eleven at the time. At the age of seventeen, shortly after my name day, I had taken the money I had been saving for the last three years, bought myself a simple sword and shield, simple travelling furs, and fled North to Skyrim.
During my upbringing in Bruma I had heard two different descriptions of the homeland of the Nords, one from the Nords living in Bruma, one from my father's dinnertime rants. He had described at as being a wild, godforsaken place, full of storms and wild, hairy barbarians. The picture painted by the Nords could not have been more different, yes, Skyrim was wild, but it was beautiful and untamed with it. It was a land of honour and courage, where men and women constantly did battle against wild animals, the elements, and each other. It was the land of the Companions.
Very few of the Nords in Bruma were great speakers, unless they had a few pints of mead in them, but mention the Companions, and every man and woman with the blood of the north running in them had a story to tell. They painted the Companions as being the ultimate depiction of the qualities of the Nords, paragons of honour and justice, great warriors and fighters all. I grew up on the stories of Ysgramor and Jeek of the River, the original Companions, and of Skjor and Kodlak, two of the greatest amongst those that currently wore that great mantle. I had decided that I would leave the arranged marriage behind me and travel north, to the land of honour and snow, so I had.
"The boy's father has allowed him his youthful exuberances and freedoms, but feels that now is the right time for the boy to settle down." My father's voice drew me out of my reverie, "Your mother and I have been searching Northern Cyrodiil and Skyrim for you, for nigh on half a year." He took a breath and prepared to continue. As he opened his mouth to continue, he was interrupted by a large, scaly form, bounding up the stair.
"Ready or not, here I come." Ram-Ku called. My father simply stared at this unwelcome interruption. Ram-Ku stared right back.
"What's the matter? Never seen an Argonian before?"
"What in Akatosh's name do you think you are doing man?" My father blustered.
Ram-Ku rolled his eyes as though it was obvious, "Playing hide and seek, obviously." When my father continued to look flusterd, Ram-Ku felt as though an explanation was needed, "You know, one person is 'it' and everyone else hides and the person who is 'it' has to find them? Admittedly there's only other competitor at the moment, but it's still fun." Then he noticed me, "Hey, Ria, you haven't seen our daughter anywhere have you? She's been hiding for about fifteen minutes."
In the silence that followed this statement you could have heard a pin drop. I glanced at my parents, my mother had apparently connected the obvious dots in her head and looked appalled, she also seemed as though she was about to faint. My father seemed to be slowly building up to an explosion of rage. It was at this point that Ram-Ku noticed the atmosphere, and also that these people looked ever-so-slightly like me. "Hang on, who are you people anyway?"
My father ignored Ram-Ku's question and chose instead to focus on me. "Ria," His voice was soft, belying the anger hidden beneath, "What have you done?" I opened my mouth to explain that it wasn't quite he thought, that it wasn't that bad.
"Are you Ria's parents?" Ram-Ku apparently hadn't worked out that now would be a good time to shut up. My father turned on him.
"Yes, you stupid walking boot, we're her parents, we're here to take her home away from stupid, defiling lizards like you." He turned back to me, completely unaware of the fact that Ram-Ku had just placed both hands upon the hilt of his greatsword, that Falin's hands were currently flickering with the dangerous energies of her magic, that each of the other Companions was waiting with their breath held, to see what Ram-Ku was going to do.
"Walking boot? I'm not a walking boot." He said, the ring of his blade clearing its sheath causing my father to turn around. Ram-Ku continued to speak in tone that indicated that he was absolutely calm, and that there was nothing wrong at all. It was a tone that said, 'everything is absolutely fine, there is no chance of violence. Sword? What sword? Oh, this sword, that's for just in case everything goes completely pear-shaped, which it won't, will it?'
"I am Ram-Ku, Member of the Circle, Champion of Hircine," here he completely ignored the looks on the faces of my parents, and the other Companions, "Drunken wastrel, Colossal Cunt, and father of your daughter's child, oh, and taker of her virginity as well." He returned to the sword to its sheath, "As you can see, I am many things, but not, a walking boot." He grinned, showing off his sharp teeth to good effect. "Now, was there some sort of problem."
My mother chose precisely this moment to faint, collapsing onto the floor beside my father. My father seemed to be quite entranced by Ram-Ku's many teeth. "No? No problem at all? Good, good. So maybe we can talk like civilised people for a moment. What do you want here?"
For the first time that I could remember, my father was left almost speechless, it didn't last long, but it was there.
"I have come to take my daughter home." He said.
"Good, see, isn't it much easier to talk when we're not insulting each other? Where is home, and why do you want to take her there?"
My father was quite clearly still shaken, "Bruma, Bruma is home, Ria is supposed to be getting married."
Ram-Ku nodded, "I see, does she want to get married?"
My father was again, at a loss, "I-I, well-"
Ram-Ku stared at him, unblinking blue eyes meeting furiously blinking brown ones. He repeated himelf, more slowly this time. "Does. She. Want. To. Get. Married."
"No." I said quietly, both men turned towards me, my father looking incredulous, Ram-Ku smirking, and looking rather pleased with himself. "No." I repeated more strongly, "No, I don't want to get married."
"Ria, you don't know what you are-"
A growl from Ram-Ku as he placed his hand on his greatsword silenced my father.
"I do not want to marry Leonde father. I have never wanted to marry him. I consider him to be weak and feeble, unworthy in fact."
Ysgramor help me, I was standing up to my father, actually, it felt as though it was the spirit of Ysgramor giving me the courage to say these words. "Ever since you told me I would have to marry him, I have been looking for a way out, death seemed like a good one at one point." I had never told anyone about my suicidal phase before, but now it just seemed, right, to let it all spill out. "I have been looking for somewhere to run to, somewhere away from Leonde, away from you."
My father found his voice, "But Ria, the company…"
I saw red, last time that happened I stabbed someone in the face, "Oblivion take your foul company!" I hissed, "This is my life we're talking about, not some stupid business deal." I was faintly aware of my mother coming to, and then passing out again upon hearing me curse, "I will control my own life, decide who I want to love, not you, and not anyone else." Ram-Ku snickered, no doubt remembering last night. I turned on him, "You say anything, Ram-Ku, and I will disembowel you with a pickaxe." I turned back to my father, "You will leave here," I said, "You will leave me alone to live my own life as I see fit, with my friends," I spotted Lucia crouching in the rafters above everyone's heads, "and with my daughter. I will not marry Leonde, or anyone else who is chosen for me. You do not control me father, not anymore."
A slow clapping, broke the tension. I turned and saw Kodlak, standing at the top of the stairs.
"Very well said, girl. Now, Mr Allectus, If you would be so kind as to take your wife and leave Jorrvaskr, without your daughter, that would be very good of you." Kodlak smiled slightly, "I'm sure that the temple of Kynareth will be able to help your wife."
My father knew when he had lost, and, picking up my mother, he left Jorrvaskr, through a door held open by Liedan, and hopefully, for a while at least, my life.
A/N: And that is Ria's family met and dealt with. Not entirely sure how Lucia got into the rafters... Next chapter will involve building Ria's relationship with Lucia. Remember to leave me reviews with any questions that you may have about anything in the story, or reviews about what you liked or didn't like, I'm always looking for ways to improve, so thank you.