Though twenty six years had passed since the end of the Great War, all was not well within the Empire. Within the great lands of Skyrim, to the north of Cyrodiil, resentment towards the Mede Dynasty and his Empire grew and grew over his decision to give into the demands of the Thalmer and so ending the worship of Talos. All of this in spite of the fact that Imperial forces were on the verge of Expelling Dominion forces from Cyrodiil. Many brave Nords never returned to great Skyrim, and as such it was felt by many that he defiled their honor by surrendering to the Thalmer so quickly. Though perhaps that which finally forced the Nords over the edge was the decision to outlaw the worship of Talos and the decision to allow Thalmer enforcers into Skyrim to insure this was done. This proved to be an affront to Nord honor from which too many Nords felt could not go unchallenged.
So it was that, in this heated climate in the cold and frigid north, a hot-blooded dissident named Ulfric Stormcloak one day stormed into the Blue Palace of Solitude and murdered the High King Torygg, before his entire court and his beloved wife Elisif. Though he felt it to be an honorable duel by the old Nord way, the Imperial Government maintained that it was not but a foul murder and an attempt at usurpation and ordered his immediate arrest. In spite of the best efforts of the Nord authorities, or perhaps because of, Ulfric escaped back to Windhelm. Not long after this, the Stormcloak Rebellion began in earnest. At first, the Imperial Government felt that this was a passing issue which would, in time, be settled internally.
In spite of what the Emperor may have initially felt, this was soon undone once entire Holds started falling in line with the Stormcloaks. So in response, the Emperor dispatched an entire Legion to Skyrim. The honor fell to the 20,000 strong 6th Legion, who was by this time under the command of General Tullius. General Tullius had dedicated the better part of his life to the 6th Legion, and had even rendered service with it during the Great War, and was thus no stranger to the inner workings of this Legion.
His second in command was another 6th Legion veteran; the Nord woman, Legate Rikke. Her agreement to take on the task at hand signaled to the Empire that not all Nords agreed with Ulfric and his Stormcloaks. With this, the 6th Legion found more support in Skyrim than had originally been anticipated. The stated mission of the 6th Legion was to first secure Solitude, the regional Capitol of Skyrim. Once accomplished, they were next to eradicate the Stormcloaks, and execute the rebel leader Ulfric Stormcloak. The Skyrim Civil War was thus began in earnest.
Twenty three years prior to the start of the Skyrim Civil War, and only three years after the end of the Great War, Ailiea became a member of the Dark Brotherhood. When she was approached by the darkly shadowed man, who later identified himself as a Breton by the name of Mordane, she felt little resistance as to joining up with the murderous organization as she had nowhere else to go and no other prospects at that point. This, and also her indifference to the vile act of killing. In her long lived life, she had seen much cruelty and death, which had forever left her once pure soul long ago mutilated an forever vile. It created deep within herself a great desensification and the cruel indifference which inherently came therein. As such, she found it easy to kill with no real justification.
Though at first, they insisted on training her in stealth, she so outperformed her supposed instructors that she ended up teaching them new stealth techniques instead. Little did they know of the training as a scout and as a ranger which she had preciously undergone. Next there came training with blades, in which she once again greatly out performed her supposed instructors, again teaching them new sword and dagger techniques, which were also learned from military training in armies and in days long since passed. Next they attempted to train her in magic, but again she greatly surpassed the ability of her instructors, and again this happened when they attempted to teach her archery. After all, how could they have known of the extensive training regiments which she had been through while serving in a hundred different armies in a hundred different times, during a hundred different wars.
Within a matter of days, they quickly learned that she was already fully prepared to go out on contracts without all the additional training that any other Dark Brother Initiate would have needed. Her very first assignment was to kill a Priest of Zenithar. She never learned who had wanted him dead, or even why. To her, it didn't really make any difference if the kill was morally justifiable or not. It was just another mission to be completed, another task to be fulfilled. Next, she was to kill a Guard in the City of Bravil, and after this, a dockhand in the City of Anvil. After these first contracts, her memory of things, events, and happenings became incoherent, as often happens when life is lived in a hurried daze as Ailiea often did by that point in her life.
As the jobs came and went, so did the years, and even her new found brothers and sisters around her. There were nine of them at the Cheydinhal Sanctuary at first. There were the two Bretons: Mordane (who was the Silencer) and Sabine; there were three Imperials: Varus, Jesan, and Lalatia; there was an Orc named Garnag; there was a Dunmer named Fadren, and lastly, the speaker, who was a Khajiit named Rasha. Ailiea, a vampire and a supposed Altmer as far as anyone knew, made nine.
Though Ailiea had was still a stranger in this world and considered herself as a mere wanderer passing though the Dark Brotherhood, even she had began to notice that the Dark Brotherhood was starting to fall into chaos. More and more of their assassins were being dying off or being killed through various means each and every day which passed. Mordane, for example, ripped off a Priestess of Dibella, who in turn, kindly relieved him of his manhood as he slept. Poor Lalatia was found out to be a member of the Brotherhood, and Ailiea was sent to kill her before she revealed any of the illusive group's well guarded secrets. She came to Lalatia late in the night and bedded her before cutting her throat from ear to ear and draining her of her life sustaining blood.
Worse still, word had started reaching those at the Cheydinhal Sanctuary that other Sanctuaries across the whole of Tamriel were being discovered and destroyed or were being abandoned. Even the common folk who forever walked the sulky streets had began to notice the downward trend. As they were suffering such alarming losses, it was becoming increasingly difficult to deal with contracts, as they were simply running out of assassins. In areas where there were no longer any Sanctuaries at all, this task simply became all but impossible. The Dark Brotherhood was simply withering away, and the people were aware of this and were starting to lose faith in the Black Sacrament.
In spite of all which was happening to the Dark Brotherhood, things in the Cheydinhal Sanctuary seemed for the longest time to be unaffected by any of this. Yet this could not last. All of that changed on the day that the Bruma Sanctuary was found out and destroyed. Every last member of that Sanctuary were felled in a last, desperate attempt to hold on to it. All members par for one, who managed to escape to Cheydinhal, and bring the bad tidings upon them. He was a young man, an Imperial named Cicero. Ailiea remembered the day upon which he joined them. He wore in his eyes a terrible applicable sadness the likes of which she hadn't seen in a long, long time. They were heavily ladened with the sad, sad memories of a home lost and a family destroyed. His face was pale and he looked to her to be weak and sickly, the after affects of his terrible plight which ate away at him like a cancer. The only part of him which seemed lively in any way was his brilliantly red hair, and even this seemed to be dull and listless to her.
Though others would come and go through the Sanctuary as they went about their lives, there always sat the poor boy, always alone in the corner with his nose always down in a journal. A journal to chronicle life as he saw it unfold before him, day after day. Always there he sat, without fail, seldom ever moving from his lowly spot there in the corner. Ailiea had made it a point to always stop by the table and share words with him, even if only for a few minutes, so that he would know that he was still family and that he was welcome there. He seemed nice to her, though he seemed to prefer listening to speaking and seemed to maintain a quiet, reserved aura about his person which surrounded him in a shroud of mystery. Ailiea could see that he still mourned the loss of his prior family and she wished that she could do more for him.
Alas, For she knew only one cure for his plight; time. Soon, he felt well enough to start taking on contracts once more. His first contract with the Cheydinhal Sanctuary was the murder of a Baroness. It was a clean kill, though he ended up having to dispatch her handmaiden as well. At that point things got messy, or so Ailiea had heard. After a while, the sickness which seemed to affect his being gradually subsided and he began to take on a more healthy appearance. In spite of this, he remained as unsociable as ever, always and forever more remaining in his corner. Though Ailiea continued to visit him there from time to time, he never really warmed up to her, or any of them for that matter.
After Cicero joined the Cheydinhal Sanctuary things seemed to quiet down for a while. Even the Listener, an Imperial woman named Alisanne Dupre, came to Cheydinhal from Bravil to discuss the reopening of a Shadowscale training facility in Black Marsh in order to boost the Brotherhood's membership and regain much needed prestige. In the end, both she and the Speaker Rasha decided the impracticality of this due to the lack of resources needed to do as such. While she was there, word reached them that the Wayrest Sanctuary had also been destroyed by corsairs. With the call of the Bruma and Wayrest Sanctuaries, there were left only three Sanctuaries in all of Tamriel; the Cheydinhal Sanctuary, the Falkreath Sanctuary in Skyrim, and the Corinthe Sanctuary in Elsweyr. It was as if a great storm chaos and calamity had hit the Brotherhood hard. With the tragic news, Alisanne decided she was to return to Bravil. After she left, she brought the storm upon her heals, back to Bravil. Skooma traffickers have taken to the streets in fits and battles for control of the Skooma markets in the area. This they were only allowed to do in the chaos created after the Great War.
As they took to the streets, the violence spread far and wide until it was no longer safe to walk the streets of Bravil anymore. This became worrisome for not only the safety of the Listener, but also for the safety of the Night Mother herself. From what Ailiea had come to understand, the Night Mother was kept safely hidden in a crypt under a statue called the Lucky Old Lady. With the chaos on the streets of Bravil, it was feared that the statue may be destroyed and the crypt uncovered; only Sithis himself knew what would happen after that. Word reached Rasha that Alisanne had even taken to hiring Sellswords to protect her residence. But Rasha knew that such precautionary actions would ultimately prove futile, so he elected to send some of the brothers and sisters of the sanctuary to aid in protecting the Listener and the Night Mother. In the end, it was decided to send Garnag, a newer Imperial sister named Andronica, and Ailiea as well. When Cicero had heard of the mission, he jumped at the chance, though ultimately Rasha felt it better if he stay back at the Sanctuary.
So Garnag, Andronica, and Ailiea made for Bravil, and though they went in confidence, one could only wonder how long that confidence would have lasted if they only knew what truly awaited for them in Bravil; if they knew that only one of them was to make it back to Cheydinhal. As soon as they arrived, they immediately started preparing for the storm which could be seen building upon the horizon. They made sure that their weapons as well as themselves were prepared, come what may. they would not have long to wait; not but a few days after the three had arrived then the gangs came together for a desperate fight there upon the town square and right in front of the statue of the Lucky Old Lady. As they fought, the statue was destroyed.
Fearing the worst, the three of them escorted Alisanne to the crypt of the Night Mother in order to prepare to defend it while the necessary preparations were made to move it to Cheydinhal. As they were preparing to move the Night Mother's coffin, the mobs found their way upon them, and all at once, all of Oblivion itself fell upon them. They were ran down by a great mob of men, Garnag grabbing his war axe and Andronica making for her sword. As they cut and slashed down the men which came for them, Ailiea and the Listener took to their bows and arrows and began to provide a covering fire over their heads. Though they were killing many men, the great mass showed no signs of letting up so that gradually the whole lot of them were forced from the crypt. As they went, Garnag used a form of Telekinetic magic she hadn't been aware he had possessed and loaded the Night Mother's coffin onto a wagon which waited for the four of them.
With it loaded, they made for the wagon as fast as they could, but alas, Andronica did not make it. As she was the farthest back amongst them, she was the first that the mob caught. As she ran, a man took a hold of her arm. As this fully stopped her from running, she came about with her sword drawn and promptly cut his arm off. And just as she was turning back about to continue running, three swords from the men who had caught up to her came through her chest. Blood went all about the street and freely flowed from her wounds as she cried out in the agonizing pain she was surely in. As she was then in too much pain to continue on, she fell to her knees, though the men behind her gave her no mercy. They continued to stab her through her back again and again, and once they had done this several dozen more times, they left her there upon the street to die as the others trampled over her broken frame. Ailiea saw all this and cried out in anger, as she and the others were powerless to save poor Andronica.
Due to the sheer volume of the crowd which attacked them, soon they became separated. Garnag was left with the cart, desperately fighting off the massive crowd as he desperately searched for his missing Sisters. the Listener Alisanne had been chased back to the ruins of the statue of the Lucky Old Lady and had climbed up upon its ruins so as to get away from the mob below her. Ailiea, for her part was chased from the scene and had been cornered in an alleyway just off the main strip. From where Ailiea was, she could still see Alisanne standing upon the statue, fending off her attackers now using destruction magic as she hurled lightning into the lot of them. Ailiea herself took to magic to fend off her attackers and began to hurl great balls of fire at her attackers to keep them at bay.
Ailiea felt encouraged to see Alisanne wielding such power, until she saw the Listener catch fire from the sheer volume of Pyromancy which had been directed at her from unseen adversaries. Once more Ailiea screamed in horror as she listened to the blood curdling cries which emanated from the Listener's burning form. She cried out and waved her arms in panic as she scrambled about for what seemed like an eternity before she finally fell to her death at the foot of the statue of the Lucky Old Lady, nothing more than a burned up husk. Now Ailiea had seen the deaths of two of her beloved sisters in but a few minutes apart of each other. She felt an old rage boil up from somewhere deep within herself, and at this point, she felt she no longer needed to hold anything back.
Now she wielded her magical abilities to their upmost and fullest extent, as such as she had not done for many centuries. She felt the very air about her crackle and steam and hiss at the great extent of heat which emanated from her lithe form. She felt the very blood within her begin to boil and she began to see not but sanguine. With her arms held out before her, she cried out in fury and a great storm of rage and fire fully surrounded her entire person. All at once, the buildings on either side of her went up in flames and all those unfortunate to be around her did so as well so that the sickly sweet smell of ripe and burning flesh hung in the air all around her. She could hear their agonizing cried of pain and horror as many of them fell dead at her feet, not but burning husks; just as they had done onto the Listener.
Taking no time to rest, Ailiea then proceeded to hurl fireball after fireball down upon the survivors who had not yet withdrawn from the alleyway. She did this again, and again until she was made free of the alleyway and turned to join with Garnag that they may make good their escape. As she did this, an arrow pierced her chest, right through her heart which caused her to drop instantaneously. Had she been a living being she surely would have died in that instant where she stood, though thank the nine, she wasn't. She clutched at her chest, which was burning and causing her agonizing pain. A silver arrow, she might have known. she watched helplessly as the precious life sustaining blood oozed free of her body. At this point, she could not even move. In her rage she had used up all of her strength, and in so doing, had so worn herself out so that she couldn't even stand to escape. As she lay there dying, she could feel the darkness coming onto her as her vision started to go. As it went, she began to feel the cold of the void as it creeped its way into her form. As she looked onto the mob as it slowly made its way over to her, she saw the figure of a woman come before her. Death, she thought to herself as she fell into a void of cold, cold darkness.
Garnag saw it all. From where he stood he looked on helplessly as poor Sister Andronica was overcome and mutilated. He gazed on in unspeakable horror as the Listener herself was engulfed in flames as she fell to her own death. So then at last, he froze where he stood, too stunned to move, as he saw Sister Ailiea felled by an arrow to her chest, and looked on as the mob overcame her. For a while he remained frozen where he stood, before the surging mob rushing at him with murderous intent brought him fully back into his own body. Realizing that he could no longer do anything for his fallen sisters, he quickly made his way over to the Night Mother and the wagon. Once there, he made a hasty escape from Bravil, not once looking back for he couldn't bear to do so. He rode far into the night and into the following days without rest until he finally reached the Cheydinhal Sanctuary. It was only at this time that he became fully aware of his own wounds; he had been beaten and stabbed multiple times, though perhaps most serious of all was an axe wound he had taken to his right eye. As they tended to his wounds, he regaled them all with the bravery in which all of the sisters had each met their end that they may join the Dread Father forever in the void of eternal darkness.
Ailiea was swimming in a void of darkness and of memories of times and faces long since passed. There before her she saw her mother and father, smiling up at her before they turned, hand in hand and walked forever into the void. Then from behind her came Valdekul, the ancient Vampire who had turned her into the wretched and blood thirsty beast which she had become. He floated before her, forever laughing at her. She screamed at his form, then watched as it too fell into the void. Though his form had vanished, his memory would be forever burned into her mind forever. This and all the things he had done onto her in younger years. In sad truth, he was simply the first of many to torment her so. Then she heard more laughing, coming from out of the void. Though this time it wasn't Valdekul. No, this voice belonged to the Dragon Priest Morokei, who was her next master after he had kill Valdekul and took her as his prize. It was his laughter, calling out to her from beyond the void. It caused her to grow angrier and angrier, and her body to grow hot. Soon the heat which surrounded her spread out until the whole of the void became unbearably hot. And once it became too hot for her to bear, she opened her eyes.
As Ailiea slowly opened her eyes, she was greeted with such a sight as she would not have expected. She was in a room. The room was not particularly large, and though there was a window, it was closed off to the outside sun by a lone, ragged curtain. In spite of this, the room was not dark as the light of the outside world was spilling into the room through the open door. As she looked to the door, she became all too aware of the sounds of a child at play. sure enough, there at the door sat a young girl, no older than six. A very young girl which looked all too impossibly familiar to her. "Appia?", she whispered more than called out to the child. She tried to set up in the bed she was in that she may see the child better.
Though as soon as she moved, a terrible and burning pain came to her emanating from the area of her chest which caused her to drop down once more onto the bed in which she lay. As soon as the child heard the name, she slowly turned to face Ailiea. Though nearly twenty years had passed since last Ailiea had seen the child, she could still remember her face, and seeing the child was like looking into days since past for Ailiea. As soon as the child could see that the Elfin woman was awake and looking to her, she cried out "Mother!" and was gone from the room in an instant. Now that Ailiea's senses were starting to return to her, she started to realize that she was burning up and drenched and glistening in sweat. She had grown deathly ill, likely the result of the silver arrow which had so pierced her heart not long ago. Though how long ago she couldn't quite say. She sat there for the briefest of moments before the child came scrambling back with an older woman in tow. From Ailiea's perspective, the rather buxom woman looked to be an Imperial, likely in her late 20s.
"Aye, the fever's gotten worse. Claudia, fetch some cold water and some rags for me.", the woman told the child by her side. Obediently, the girl named Claudia did as she was told and off she went without a moment's hesitation. Ailiea was alone with the woman now, and as she looked up to her, she somehow knew who she was.
"Appia, oh how you've grown.", Ailiea said to her.
Taking Ailiea's hand in her own, she knelt by the bed with beginnings of tears forming in her eyes, "You remember me after all these years. I'm glad, I've missed you.". Appia paused for a while before she spoke on. "Look at you, not a day older then when last I saw you. Truly, you are a vampire after all.".
"The years have been kind to you, you've grown into a beautiful woman. And your daughter; truly she was made in your image. She looks as you did those many years ago,", Ailiea managed to speak, however softly as she was quickly tiring. "Where is the girl's father?"
At the question, Appia's gaze became somewhat distant and sad. "After you left the Inn, life was never the same for me. Again I found myself all alone in the world, and I couldn't take it. So as soon as I turned sixteen, I came here to Bravil, a warmer city by the bay. I was looking to start over, and here I met my husband. Not long after we were married, we had little Claudia. Soon he went back to sea as a sailor, to earn for his family, but the ship he was on was attacked by corsairs...". She stopped for a while as the tears found their way once more to her eyes. "They left no survivors. Since then I've done all that I can to provide for my Claudia."
"How did I get here?", Ailiea whispered to her; Ailiea's strength was fading fast.
Seeing that Ailiea was starting to fade again, Appia placed her hand upon Ailiea's forehead; it was burning, hotter than it had been earlier. Ailiea was far more ill than Appia had feared. " I saw the mob attacking you and your friends, so I quickly made for home that I may see to Claudia's safety. As I passed by the mob, I saw you, felled by an arrow. At first I looked away that I may not see you die, then I caught a glimpse of your eyes. Your breath-taking, silver eyes, and I knew that it had to be you. So I made my way to you, and protected you from the mob until they moved on. Once they had passed us by, I carried you to my home.", the entire scene was still fresh in Appia's mind, though it had all happened over a fortnight ago. As she finished her words, Ailiea let out a small and barely audible whimper, and she fell back into a deadly sleep.
Ailiea found herself once more in the cold embrace of an empty void. As she slept, old, fragmented memories came back to her. It was a different time than from her last dreams, a time long after the time of the Dragons. Now came the time of the Nedes; the time of Men. She was in a dark place. Snow was falling all about her; she was in an open field in the midst of a relentless blizzard. Then, from out of the snow came the figure of Ysgramor. Before her he stopped for a time and smiled down to her. Then he spoke to her in a low and cruel voice, "The time of Mer is at an end,", and once he said this, he took Wuuthrad from his back and brought it down upon her screaming form.
Then only the cold of the void once more. Silence. A cold, void and silence. She floated through it, her knees folded up to her face and her arms folded across her legs. She was naked and vulnerable and all alone. Every now and again, she would hear voices all around her. voices which seemed all too familiar. First there came the voice of a small girl, "Will she be alright, mother?".
Then, inevitably, there came the answer, "I hope so, Claudia; I do hope so.". When she heard the voices, she would open her eyes for the briefest of moments. She felt hot and she was shaking fiercely as she did so. Before her came the image of little Appia. Then, as she stared on, she would realize that it was actually little Claudia, with the fully grown Appia standing opposite the small girl. They would be standing over her, looking down upon her weakened frame as they did so. Then, as she tried to call out to them, all would go dark once more as she found herself once more cold and naked in a vast and empty void. Nothing once more, but the void and the silence. Could anything be anymore maddening then this?
Another fragmented memory came to her. The time of Ysgramor was long gone now. She found herself dressed as a soldier upon the field of battle. No more snow, now only the cold waters of the sea were splashing her hard across her face. Before her lay the city of Skywatch, burning. Above the city there hovered many airships, and below them there were many hulking and fat beasts; the Sloads. With her own people long gone, Ailiea had blended into Altmer society and became one of them. The beasts approached her, so she took her sword and the struck at them. Though as soon as she came close to hitting one of the Sloads, it disappeared, leaving her to strike out at the now open air. She did this many more times, all while the Sloads laughed down at her. After a while, the Sloads grew tired of their little game, so they lashed out at her with lightning spells. She cried out in pain as the lightning seethed through her body. The pain was so intense that it fully caused her to collapse in on herself.
As she fell, she once more opened her eyes, and was greeted with the sight of little Claudia and Appia again.
"She's dying. She probably won't last the night.", she heard Appia say. Tears came to her at the bitter sting of her own words.
Little Claudia started crying. As she did this, she leaned in and kissed Ailiea gently upon her brow. Strange, she felt, as she did not even know the child and the child did not know her. Then she fell back into the void once more. She fell back into it's cold embrace, and she heard a voice call out to her. It was a voice which she had not heard before.
Daughter, why do you linger here? It is not your time to meet the Dread Father yet. Arise and reawaken. Make your way to Skyrim, find the Sanctuary west of Falkreath. Hear my words and make it so...
It was as if hearing the words of the Night Mother herself breathed new life into Ailiea's dying form. The void became warm and a brilliantly bright light came before Ailiea. It was as if it were calling out to her to follow, for she did just that. She followed the light farther and farther into the void, though to where she could only wonder.
Soon Ailiea could hear the chirping of birds and the rising and the falling of the sea. She breathed the warm summer air once more into her lungs. She still felt hot, but nowhere nearly as hot as she had felt. The fever was breaking at long last. She felt worlds better, though her breathing was still labored, as though something were weighing her down. So, she slowly opened her eyes, and was greeted with the sight of little Claudia, who had fallen asleep directly on top of her rising and falling chest. She tried to wake the child, or at the very least move her, but much to her dismay, she found herself far too weak to move the small girl. Then at last, Appia walked into the room. Seeing that Ailiea was awake once more seemed to elevate her mood.
"It does me good to see you awake again, after these many months of sickness.". By the nine, had it been so long. As she spoke, Appia lifted the sleeping form of Claudia fully off her and instead laid the girl down next to Ailiea. Ailiea looked on as Appia stroked her hand through the girl's hair.
"She is your whole world, isn't she...", Ailiea asked of Appia. Appia slowly nodded.
"Aye, she is. There is nothing I wouldn't do for her.". Appia leaned in and kisses the sleeping girl lightly across her brow.
"What do you do, anyway?", she asked of Appia. Appia paused for a moment before answering.
"I... sell my talents to men of the sea.".
Ailiea was taken aback by this, this was not the answer which she had expected. "I'm sorry, I didn't mean to pry."
"Worry not for me, I'll be fine. Besides, my little Claudia is worth it. It pays well enough that neither of us ever want for anything. My only worry is that my looks won't hold for much longer. Already I can feel time catching up to me. I'm not as young as I once was after all. I am afraid that soon I won't be able to make enough Septims to provide for us.". Appia paused for awhile, as though deep in thought. Soon she found the thought she was looking for, and upon finding it, she turned once more to Ailiea. "Can you turn me into a Vampire? I wish to be frozen to time as you are. If I were like you, I would never have to worry about providing for my Claudia."
Ailiea knew that this question would come sooner or later. "I can turn you if that truly be your wish, though are you sure you know exactly what it is you ask for?"
"I'm not sure I understand what you mean...", Appia gave Ailiea a puzzled gaze. Taking this as a sign to continue, Ailiea went on with her words.
"If I am to turn you, you would get your wish to be sure. You would forever be young and you would never have to worry about being unable to provide for Claudia. However, if I were to do this, you would watch as Claudia passed from the shadows of childhood. Soon Claudia would grow to be a young woman, just as you have, though she wouldn't stop where you will have. She will age on to become an older woman. Each day she would grow older and older until one day she would die right before you. And there you'll be forever young, and now all alone, as has happened to me many, many times."
Appia's eyes lit up in the horror of Ailiea's words, "That is not what I wanted, not what I wanted at all!". She thought for a little while longer before she spoke again, "If that is to be how things turn out, then I won't ask this of you.".
Ailiea stayed there with them for many years more. After the sickness, it was awhile before Ailiea was fully recovered. She stayed on after this because Appia and little Claudia were family and she desired to be with family again. Though she often thought of traveling back to the Cheydinhal Sanctuary, she finally decided against this as the shame of having failed to defend the Listener held her back from doing so. Often, she remembered the words of the Night Mother calling out to her as she had done years earlier. So when at last Ailiea finally decided that it was time for her to make way for Skyrim, Claudia was already a young woman all her own. Nearly ten years had passed since Ailiea had come to live with them. Though they were saddened to see her go, they knew that Ailiea's story was not to end with them. So, in order to thank them, Ailiea arranged for her entire accumulated wealth be transferred over to them; all 60,000 Septims of it.
After she made the necessary arrangements for the care of Appia and Claudia, she made her way to the city of Bruma. Once she arrived there, she made arrangements for all of her gear and her Dark Brotherhood Armor be moved to Falkreath ahead of her. After this was done, she took an extra day to visit the shattered remains of the Bruma Sanctuary where all of Cicero's brothers and sisters had died many and many years prior. After praying to the Dread Father for their souls, she made her way at last for the mountain pass which led through the Jerall Mountains and into Skyrim. One chapter of her adventures closed for the last time, while another one opened.