THE QUEEN AND HER IRON CASTLE

by WestiDisc

Ashadon never wanted to grow up to run a kingdom, she just wanted a simple life where she'd do simple things. Luckily for her, the gods seem to have her interests in mind, but wishes don't come without a twist or two. Come on and join the ride in a very...'extravagant' journey across Skyrim with with some very 'extravagant' people. ;}

2. Chapter 1: Times Change

Chapter 1: Times Change

(17 years later)

(Turdas/11th of Last Seed/4E 201...3:18 p.m.)

"Ashadon, you need to understand, we must see your mother."

"No I don't, but you father, you are the one that must, I'm not the one that mourns her lose everyday, I'm not the one who killed his own wife." That had done it, the expression on father's face turned from pleading to a mixture of despair and regret. But this was how every year was, father told me we're to go to mother's grave only to receive my fixed answer. It worked every time too, the same reaction and the same result always followed. Did I regret it? Yes and no, I regretted causing father more pain than he ever needed, but I didn't regret that I wouldn't have to face my fear of going to mother's grave with her murderer, a fear that had only developed through learning the truth..

I had no problem with going to mother's grave when I was younger, but that was before father told me how she died. When I had turned 12 father had deemed me old enough to learn the fate of mother. Telling me about my birth and the poison and mother having no chance of survival even with magic. As soon as he had finished I had ran out of the family crypt eyes filled with tears and throat burning with the heavy moans I heaved in and out. That's why every year when I could have learn to forgive father and return to normal life I didn't.

But it wasn't like everyday I shunned father just because of mother's death. We still ate together and had small talk, but any other time, I got away. There were some occasions when father tried to salvage our "relationship". Once he had brought in a traveling carnival from Cyrodiil, were they then performed for my birthday and gave a couple shows for the City, But that only bought father a month of normality. Another time father asked a band of 30 traveling Khajiit to teach me of mother's heritage and the ways of her people and everything went well and I learned a lot. I learned that I was a strange mix breed, part Suthay-raht and part Ohmes-raht, giving me the fur of my people and some features such as claws, sharp teeth, a feline snout, a tail, my pointier than normal cat ears, but a more human face with less hair than others on it and even a more human voice than the purring feline voice of the Khajiit. But still in the end it didn't buy father much time of normality.

"At least remember to make it to the ball tonight; you're the only reason we're having it." His voice turning from pleading to anger, I watched as father walked out of the room and left me to myself. Why he couldn't except how I felt about today was beyond me but he had to reason be angry with me.

Guess I'd read a book till it was time for the ball. I walked over to my bookshelf and pulled my current book off it. Turning the book over in my hand I re-read the title, "Daedra Worship & Princes". I'd kept the book to myself fearing I'd be judged by my peers for reading something so "dark". I never did find solace in the god the court worshipped, Dibella the Goddess of Beauty. Although she was worshipped farther south it had been something mother had brought north and father had brought into the court. It was strange though because the other women of the court were worshipped by everyone else except father and they perform erotic dances during ceremonies, but that was just how the religion worked.

So I took to looking for other gods or just a god to worship, and I found that among the daedra. Some of the gods were pretty sadistic so those weren't really for me but then there was a few that gave back to their followers for following. I'd had narrowed it down to three different gods I'd chose to worship soon. Meridia, Prince of the energies of living things, Azura, of Dusk, Dawn and the magic that exists between the various realms of twilight, and Hircine, the prince of the hunt. Although Meridia and Azura were gods more so on the passive side, but I was looking for something dangerous but fun. And Hircine's gift of the hunt, that sounded like fun.

I went to open up the book but was instantly hit with boredom as I flipped to the first page. Maybe Shanna or some of the other girls from the court were free to talk or do something.

Putting the book back on the shelf I made my way over to my mirror posted above my desk next to my bed. I darted my eyes over my face and hair looking for anything that looked really screwed up. Eyes still brown, my pale skin still greasy, but beautifully smooth, curvy ass eyebrows, still not burned off. Shit, hair could definitely use some fixing, what was usually a shiny copper fluff of lose hair was now a tangled mess of knots. I racked my sharp nails through my hair till it looked a bit more presentable, good enough.

I jumped over to my wardrobe, I needed to get yesterday's clothes off. I ignored the entire left side of the wardrobe, the beauty of organization, they were all dresses for important events. I shifted through my casual clothes, a simple white tunic, a green tunic with red bands around the arms, a red tunic, just a bunch of gods damned tunics. I grabbed the white one for the sake of simplicity, and grabbed a pair of brown trousers to wear, if it wasn't for the fact just about everyone in the city knew who I was people would think I was a commoner.

After fiddling with the dress from yesterday's remembrance party to mother and downing my new clothes, I made a break for the door, I needed to go find Shanna, opening it as I went. But as soon as I opened the door a hand gripped mine in a hard lock. I jumped and gave a little scream before turning to see the hand of my assailant. There my attacker stood, a grin a mile high, and a laugh the sound of a siren, Zarcath. The damn cat-man was a million times more stealthy than me but he hand the jump on me considering I was just walking out of my room.

"What do you want!?" I yelled at him with a grin on my face.

"Well, that's a good question," he began "I want a dog, a mammoth, a kingdom, a wife…"

"Ok, shut up, I get it, what I meant was what do you want right now."

"I want you to cheer up, so let's go hit up the mead storage." he gave a little chant to his words.

In the nine years since Zarcath had been inducted into the 'royal' family, we had learned a lot about each other. The fact that we got happy like anyone else from drinking had been something of an interesting thing we had found out about each other. I could do a few drinks before I went to find Shanna but I'd need a way to mask my breath afterwards.

"Fine go get the damn ale, you thief." I huffed out at him

"I will be back dear sister." he said grinning even harder than before.

As he turned tail and made his way down the hall and out of sight, I went back into the room and sat on my bed. Then I transitioned into a flopped down position on the bed, legs off on the floor, arms spread out to the sides, and my back lying on the bed.

The time passed as I layed on the bed, what felt like hours was in reality minutes. Finally after about an hour, a knock sounded. Thump..Thump..Thump….THUMP, yeh that was him, don't know why he did it, the door wasn't locked. Taking my time getting up I walked to the door and opened it. Zarcath burst into the room with two kegs mounted with mugs and whipped around.

"Close the fucking fucking door!" he laughed and hissed.

Looking out into the hall, I saw why he burst in like a madman. Running down the hall came the store house manager, a axe in both hands, yelling, "Where are you kitty, daddy's got you a treat." It looked like he was about to foam from the mouth, his eyes bulging and what looked like blood shot from no-sleep. As he made it to the door he turned to me, "My lady, have you happen to see a little cat running down this hall, possibly holding a keg or two?" he said huffing like a hunting dog.

"No, I believe I have not" I said trying my best to hide my grin, little did he know that right on the other side of the ajar door Zarcath stood biting his hand to keep from laughing.

"Well, if you happen to see a little kitty then tell it the manager has a treat for it." He said before taking off down the hall to find Zarcath. By the gods, it was just two kegs, it wasn't like they were needing to ration anything, and even if they did, mead would be the last thing that would need to be rationed. It didn't make it any better that the Manager thought poorly of us. Just because we had khajiit backgrounds, but I was a slight exception due to father being the jarl, Zarcath not so much with his full khajiit heritage and the fact he wasn't a blooded heir.

Zarcath let loose the laugh he'd built up as I finally shut the door and locked it. He dropped to the floor and rolled left, then he rolled right, and then left again, not even stopping when he hit the sides of the small doorway. "You could, you know, shut up!" I chuckled, if he kept this up the manager would for surely hear him hissing like a house cat.

"I'm good, we have nothing to fear, that axe of his can't break metal." he said standing up and walking over to the bed where the kegs sat. I'm surprised the manager hadn't spotted the kegs when the door had been ajared.

"Did you get the good stuff?" a smirk planted on my face, he returned the same smirk.

"Indeed I did that's why I was running for the hills sis." he took up a mug and bashed it against the top of the barrel causing the top to pop off. A trick that the local barkeep had taught him when we went down about a year ago.

"Bottoms up!" I said as I raised my now filled mug and clinked it against Zarcath's. Raising the mug to my lips, getting a little taste of the brew, Moonlight's Shadow. This mead was more so a rarity, imported from Elsweyr, brewed once a year. It probably was a big tip off that I was drinking because Zarcath didn't down 100 kegs a year by himself. Hell, with the things that I was going through I didn't care if Father knew but everyone else was a different story. If the public or the court found out I was doing heavy drinking at this age then they'd probably think me to be a drunkard princess when I take over, well, if I take over.

Here I was drinking with Zarcath behind a locked door. So many things could go wrong between two drunk teens stuck in one room. But Zarcath had proved on previous occasions that he wouldn't do any funny business while we were drunk. Other than taking my bottle of ink and drawing on my face with the quill, or the other time he used a light spell on me. Made me think I was dead, while I was "dead" he played gods, almost got me to kiss him before I punched him in the gut. He never went too far was as to rape me, why was I so worried, we were like brother and sister.

As I finished my mug, I set it down, wondering what my mother would think of me right now. Here I was drinking behind closed doors with a older boy. The fact that I was just drinking probably sent my mother spinning in her grave. These moments probably wouldn't happen had she still been alive, but a life without these moments would be a shitty life. Why couldn't I have both? Why was mother destined to die? These were questions that only the mead in my hand could answer. Lifting my mug I downed my fourth mug and just let myself lose and get into the sweet process of getting wasted.

-( 5 hours later )-

"Ashadon! Ashadon, open this blasted door before I have Xaria open it!" a man yelled through the door. God damn, it must have been night by now, and I was dealing with a hangover. Now here someone comes just in time for the grand show. Wobbling over to the door I unlocked it and cracked it only enough to get my head out. Greeted to the sight of dad in his royal clothes and Xaria in her mage robes. I gave it a minute seeing which of us would speak first.

"Can I help, youuuu?" I slurred with a princess smile on my face.

"Well that depends am I speaking to Ashadon or Trash-adoned?" he smiled back .

"Ha," I laughed, "you said trash!" I slurred so bad I wish I was dead.

"Your fucking wasted, my daughter, the heir to the throne of Markarth!" he exclaimed throwing his hands up," Xaria please cleanse my duaghter's body."

"Yes my lord." she stepped forward and let magic course from her fingers to me. I must have still been considerably drunk because I could barely feel any difference the magic was to making. As I went back into the room, Xaria and Dad followed, I flopped back down onto my bed. My back popping from the impact I made as I finally settled in. But then it hit me, where's Zarcath, why isn't he getting his ass chewed out right now.

"Hey Xaria how bout you give Zarcath some of this stuff?" I said with a bit less slur than before. Looking at her she gave me a confused glare and then a side glance to my father who had the same look.

"STAY BACK!" someone shouted from the dark corner of the room, had to be Zarcath, only thing there was a pair of glowing eyes.

"Xaria get some light in here." Dad said, one hand on his sword, he stood still. Xaria took away one of her hands and casted a spell that placed a ball of light above our heads expelling all the darkness in the room. With all darkness gone we could see a figure cowering in the corner holding a dagger in front of itself. Only safe to assume that it was Zarcath because no one else entered the room earlier. Plus I was pretty sure that the figure was the only other person in the city to have a tail besides myself.

"Zarcath put the blade away" dad softened his tone"it's us Zarcath, your family, we're not gonna hurt you."

"NO, MY FAMILY'S DEAD!" he wouldn't hush his tone just kept yelling as loud as he could. But then for about three minutes straight he went on a mumbling fest. Only things I was able to pick up was his family was dead and it wasn't his fault. Finally Dad walked up to him and plucked the blade from his grip before he could tighten his grip. Then he did the unexpected and practically hugged Zarcath but in a way to restrain him. Zarcath then started thrashing and yelling at Dad like he was about to be murdered or was being murdered.

"XARIA PUT HIM DOWN!" Dad had to yell over Zarcath's mixture of yelling and hissing. Xaria dropped all attention on me and focused a spell on Zarcath that instantly knocked him out. All the sudden, for no reason, the alcohol finally hit me and I threw up into the nearby keg. For a good minute I sat there spewing my guts into the small barrel. When I was finally done, I looked up, Dad was carrying Zarcath over his shoulder and Xaria was just waiting.

"Xaria, if you don't mind, take my daughter to the bath house and have her cleaned."

"It will be done." she said in a monotone voice.

"You really should stop that, yes sir stuff, your a mage in my court but an individual outside of that."

"Sure" she finished.

Dad finally took to what I'd assume was taking Zarcath back to his room but I didn't really have any idea. Only thing I knew was that my father thought I needed a bath and that he was having my mother figure help me. Which must have meant that something important was about to happen. Usually I would do this kind of stuff by myself but now she was going to "help" me. It better be damn worth the time if it was going to be a conversation in the bathing house.

We had traveled about halfway to the bath house, which was more so a room, when what Zarcath had said finally hit me. He had said that his family was dead, but Dad had said that Zarcath was an orphan in that his family didn't want him. Not that his family was killed and he was then orphaned. So many questions popped into my head right then, why was his family killed, who killed his family, how'd he live? These questions were questions that I'd probably have to let Zarcath answer when he felt that it was right.

Now that I thought about it, that was probably the first non drunk thing I've thought of or said since everything started. Now we were at the bath house and god did I need to relax. So I watched as Xaria opened the door to the Royal bathing room. Steam pouring out of the door and onto me and her. Yeah, I needed this, with all the crap that's happened within the past day I really needed this. Or had it been less than a day, I just needed a damn bath.

Not wanting the heat to escape, I took a few steps through the door, Xaria shut the door behind us. The steam that was originally on it's way out now shot up into my face. The heat made me cringe for a second but once it was out I was ready to be in. I started to make my way over to my section of the room while Xaria went over to the guest section. Before getting behind the chest high stone wall I grabbed my thin bathing cloth that sat upon a shelf that jutted fourth from the stone.

Now behind it I began my quick strip of the clothes till I was fully in the nude. Before I put on the bathing robe I gave myself a quick glance down at my chest. I guess I grew a bit, maybe a decent bit, a whole more inch all around. That would explain why I got men taking double glances at me. Most almost act like they want to bend me over and have a go. But my tail, my claws, and the fact that my father was jarl is probably what kept them back.

Draping the robe over my shoulders I stepped out from behind the marble and faced the bath. Xaria must of been losing her mind, she was still in her mage robes, sitting in the tube. I just gave her a quick look of confusion as I stepped into the tube. As the water surrounded my foot I gladly spread my toes to make sure it heated all of me. It took me a minute but I finally lowered my whole body into the water and onto the submerged bench.

Looking back to her I saw her looking back to me. She must've been waiting for me to start the conversation. "So what you been up to these day?" I asked.

"Already trying to dodge the obvious are we?" She gave a coy smile.

"Come on, I didn't even plan on drinking today, it was Zarcath's fault we got wasted!" Maybe I could get away with a lie, it wasn't even that far from the truth to.

"So your saying Zarcath forced you to drink with him."

"Yes!"

"You know, I honestly thought I raised you to be better than this! I bet it's because I never beat you for lying. I used to beat my twins for lying and now they've yet to tell me a lie in the last five years!"

"I'm being serious though, it was all him!"

"And I'm being serious as well, don't go lying to me."

"Fine, whatever, maybe I was slightly persuaded to drink."

"Better, and don't go lying to me again! I've never lied to you and so I expect the same from you. But here's what I have to say about what you've gone and done today. I don't care if you drink," no way I just heard her right," me and your mother used to drink when we were kids. I just prefer you don't get caught drinking by your father or anyone for that matter. All said, that doesn't mean that I don't care you're slowly killing yourself. I've seen men who'd live to see their grandchildren die before then to the effects of heavy drinking. Just, be cautious, I don't need you dying on me anytime soon."

I sunk back into the bath, scoldings from Xaria sucked but they never ceased to be insightful or unnerving. And it wasn't like I was forced to actually learn from those scoldings, but she was the mother I never had so I never chose to ignore what she had to say.

"So you asked how life was?"

"Ah, yeah." Guess she did want to talk.

"Depends what part of my life you're asking about then" she said, she had quite the life after all. She was a court mage, a mother, a hunter, and a former pleasurer. The last one being something that only me, Zarcath, Shanna, and Dad knew about, but these days she was only the first three, and it would probably stay that way.

"Your mage life"

"These "days" not much other than my research into the dwemer culture."

"What do you mean by culture?"

"Culture my dear, literature, daily life, beliefs, social life."

"Oh" I replied looking down into the water, how could I be so stupid. I've had tutors teach me everything I'd need to know and yet I couldn't tell what she meant by culture.

"Anything really interesting?" I said looking back up

"Yes actually," she gave a pause "you know how every so often we have a gathering to worship the women of our court?"

"It's kind of hard to forget something of that nature." I replied reflecting on the amount of times I've had to watch the "ritual" and how images were practically burned into my head.

"Well, after going through multiple scrolls it appears that they suggested all the same things, women were highly valued in their society. Valued in ways that no other culture to this era would think was acceptable. Women were considered the epicenter of life, if you exclude architecture and machinery, but otherwise the epicenter. They did things for the women that not even people of our courts religion would do. I personally found it interesting because, unlike the court, the dwemer didn't believe in the gods and the daedra so their actions weren't influenced by religion."

"What kind of things did they do?"

"Well first," she choked "I should tell you the difference between their life and your religion. They didn't worship groups of women, if you were a man, you'd worship your wife. If you were a boy you worshiped the girl you loved, but unlike the men, you just gave them flowers. To be detailed men gave their wives...sex as their form of worship." She finished that sentence with a quirk on her face like she didn't know how I'd take it. Following that she turned her head off to the side for a bit probably thinking about how to continue the conversation.

"You know, that's interesting in all, but I kinda wanna get it out there that I don't worship dibella out of sheer willingness. To be honest, I really hate all the rituals and stuff, it's just not "my" religion."

"Owh, don't go saying that to anyone, we have a whole damn shrine to her here and the majority of the court worships her, word gets out you don't worship her and drinking will be the last of your problems." Fuck, maybe I shouldn't've said anything.

"So, I'm going to be honest with you again, I don't care who your worship. I myself don't believe in any of the gods...well, maybe Hircine and Molag Bal but that's because I've seen werewolves and vampires with my own damn eyes. I just don't worship any god, you could also blame it on the dwemer because they've taught me a thing or two through their dead culture."

I needed to really just keep to myself and cut out my tongue.

"Glad to know you aren't gonna rat me out" I finished the conversation with a nervous laugh, it probably would have escalated if we'd continued. Besides straying from the topic, it wasn't like I had a problem talking about sex. She didn't know but me and Zarcath had a very eventful night awhile ago during the winter. We were stuck in a roadside inn on our way back to Markarth from Whiterun and Zarcath had taken to telling me about what he would do to some "beautiful" girls around our age sitting at the other end of the tavern.

While in our drunken state I decided to tell him what I'd do to him. That really got his ears perked, and something else got perked, but he must have understood it was a joke. He went right back to telling me his dirty thoughts when he calmed down. It was interesting because after that night Zarcath would perk up when we talked about sex. He almost became more focused and more serious like he actually enjoyed it. But what the hell did the two of us know about sex, we'd only ever joked about it.

Still sitting in the water I swished my hand left and right creating ripples through the water. I watched as one actually made its way across the couple of feet between me and Xaria and swelled up and into here robe. She jumped off the bench just a bit as the water hit her, snapping here out of her bubble. She looked at me with a small grin, I was pretty sure what she was about to do.

"Xaria, please don…"I tried to say before she took the tips of her fingers and sent a freezing bridge of ice over to me, freezing the water around my body.

"Ahhhhh!" I squeaked quietly as the ice slowly sucked the body heat I'd just taken in.

"My, my, my, it looks pretty cold on that side of the bath," she said mockingly, " you know I here there's a special word that helps in these types of situations."

"Never!" I said with defiance while my teeth chattered, she probably had no idea what I was about to do. I dug deep and pulled up my mana pool and focused on conjuring fire into my hands. I looked down as I felt the heat radiating from my hands and into the now melting ice. I looked back up at her, she was still grinning, but with that grin I wasn't sure if she knew.

"I would think not." she said, I could feel the Ice come back around everything that just melted.

"You know you can go screw yourself."

"Or I could do both, wait for you to say sorry, and screw myself." After she said that I was ready to explode, I conjured up a fireball in the limited space my hands still had.

"You know you're probably going to blow your hands off in such a condensed space?" a small hint of fear bit at the corner of her grin.

"It'll be ok," I started "I know you'll unfreeze the water as soon as I release it." I finished with a smile just to piss her off. Just a couple seconds later when I released the fire, I watched as it traveled through the now unfrozen water and into the ceiling.

"You were right, I wouldn't let you blow your hands off, but I would let you destroy the ceiling."

The tiles that had been hit by the blast didn't break but had been scorched black, hopefully no one looked at the ceiling when they bathed. Quickly I stepped onto the bench and then quickly onto the ledge of the bath and out of the water. I made my way to where I left my clothes and grabbed a towel and began to dry myself. Once I was done with that I donned my previous clothes and discarded the towel to the corner of the small space.

I turned around to find Xaria climbing out of the submerged bath. Her robe still looked perfectly dry but her skin was visibly wet. I guess that was kinda interesting to know that her robe was waterproof. It was a fool's guess to think that her robe wasn't enchanted, but to have an enchantment that repels water almost seems pointless for a court-mage such as herself.

Walking to the entrance of the room I met Xaria halfway and then finished at the door. We stood at the door for a couple wordless seconds till I made the move and opened the door. Walking through the entrance and into the hall I stared down the corridor. A small blurry object shot around the corner of the hall and out of sight. It took me by surprise causing me to take a quick step backwards. I looked back to find Xaria shutting the door behind us, unknowing of what just happened in front of us. If anything it must have just been a servant passing through the halls. Worst case would be that something was roaming loose through the halls of the castle.

A slight nudge in my shoulder brought me back out of my thoughts. Xaria was standing next to me before she started to walk onward. Almost as if she had known that I wouldn't be moving anytime soon, so she started without me. I took a couple prancing steps to catch up to her, but I still kept behind her, we finally made it to the end of the hall.

"So what now?" I asked, her head turned left and right looking down the hall.

"Well now…" she put a pause in her words," you're gonna go about the day as if it were any other day."

Go about the day as if it were any other!?" I restated," I watched Zarcath pull a knife on all of us and act like a madman! He's never done that before and who says he won't do it again! How can I go about the day knowing something's wrong with him and not say anything?" I just snapped, a wave of rage, worry, fear, and disgust came flowing over me and then out my mouth.

Xaria turned to me and just stared into my soul. She seemed to be looking for a sign that I was exaggerating or just trying to argue.

"Ash, through time you'll have to learn to deal with people's quirks and flaws. You won't be able to turn people away just because they have a problem. So I recommend that you drop any thoughts of shunning Zarcath for his little outburst and do like I say and move on." she finished her words roughly.

Her words caught me off guard, I just stood there, I couldn't recover fast enough. Tears started to well at the corners of my eyes. I could feel my legs start to give way abit but I was able to keep myself up. I just took a couple steps back and leaned against the wall for support. Then I just stood there covering my eyes with one of my arms.

After some time had passed I heard Xaria walk over to me and plant her back along the wall right next to me. Her left arm hooked over my shoulders and pulled me towards her, and I just let it happen. She pulled me into a hug and I just set my face into the crook of her shoulder. It wasn't helpful though because the tears would roll onto her robe and then back onto my cheek. But it was still nice due to the warmth that was emanating from her.

"You know crying isn't gonna get you anywhere…" she said silently" but my bed." As soon as she said that I lost all reasons to cry. Those words caused me to slowly pull my face out of her neck and just stare into her eyes. A grin creeped across her face, "Got you to stop crying didn't I?". I guess it had considering that I was no longer thinking about Zarcath and his problem but now Xaria and her problem with containing her horny side.

I allowed a smile to creep onto my face as well, "I really hate you...you know that right" I whipped my face off with my sleeve as I finished.

"I love you to!" she gave me a peck on the face. I just blew it off and stood up holding out my hand to help her up. At the same time I looked around to see if anyone happen to see our little exchange. It seemed that nobody had seen but I did notice we had moved around from our original spot a couple times and had somehow sat down.

"See you're already doing good…" she said as she took hold of my hand," you've been able to look past my flaws". With that she pulled herself up into a standing position. Then she just started to walk away down one end of the hall. So I followed suit and went to the other end of the hall. When I got to the end I was set at another crossroads. Thank god Father had signs installed to help guide people around the keep.

Looking to the sign I made myself two options, go left and meet with father in the main hall or go right and see if Shanna was around, assuming she was in her room. Considering the options I gave myself two summaries of what each would end up like. Go to Father and end up spending my time not talking or go to Shanna and probably do something fun. It was practically a no-brainer so I started to take a few steps to the right, but then everything that happened this afternoon hit me.

The "fight" that me and father had started to guilt trip me into rethinking my decision. I stopped dead in my tracks, gave myself a second, and followed up with a complete turn around. I walked till I reached each and every turn trying to get myself to turn back around, but the guilt was too great. Finally I approached the open set of doors leading into the main hall. Just from here I could see not much was going on in the inside. Usually there would be small clumps of people from the court standing around but there were none.

Although there was nothing in sight there was still conversation coming from the hall. I was about to peek around but before I did I saw someone's arm stick out from another door leading into the hall. Within a second the figure appeared, turning out to be Moth, Father's personal blacksmith, it seemed he was done for the day. As he shut the door I could hear the conversation from the room stop.

"I'd take it you're done for the night?" a voice who I could only assume to be father's spoke out. Moth turned towards the voice and continued walking out of my sight.

"Yes, indeed I am my Jarl."

"Moth, tell me this, why is it that every night you chose to leave the keep and do whatever it is you do. When I could easily have another bed brought for you or even make way for the construction of a room for your personal use?

"My Jarl if I told you my reasoning behind what I do then you'd call me a vampire!" He chuckled from the hall with my father following it up with his own.

"May the gods watch over you Moth."

"Same to you my Jarl." with that the conversation seemed to die and the footsteps soon followed, no longer echoing through the hall. I was about to finally leave the shadows of the door till I heard the sound of footsteps pick up again but this time I could pick out more than just one set.

"Stop right there Thalmor you need not approach the Jarl any further." I assumed this voice to be one of Father's personal guards. Besides the voice though I was taken off guard by abit to hear that the Thalmor were here. Usually the Thalmor would do their best to stay away from places where they didn't have the Imperials to back them. Also considering that Father had chosen to keep the city neutral, in my mind, the Thalmor were playing a dangerous game coming to our home.

"You need not tell me what I can or can't do Nord." a women's sharp voice, tainted with hatred, respond.

"Ah Justiciar Saranto, come to try your luck again I see?"

"I wouldn't call it luck Jarl I'd call it diplomacy."

"You know if you weren't so serious you would've understood what I meant."

"No, I understood that you were insulting me for my inability to get you to see reason."

"So genocide is reason?!" Father said, not yelling, but in a drawn out line of sarcasm.

"Jarl Sapir, I don't know what you've heard but genocide is not a term you'll find to fit the Aldmeri Dominion!" It had seemed that the Justiciar took Father's words as an insult. After that comment Father and the justiciar launched into a verbal fight about what seemed to be morals and beliefs. It felt like ages passed until the argument took a turn.

"Justiciar it's taken me sometime now but if I remember correctly this seems to be the same conversation we had last time you were here."

"Well Jarl I'd think it was to since we've only talked the delusions of the many people in skyrim."

"I guess since they're only delusions, and we have nothing else to talk about, than you should get going."The hall went silent till father began, "Well there is the alternative, of course, you'd have to come back tomorrow though."

"What do you mean alternative?" The justiciar seemed annoyed that she was having to play father's games to get anywhere in the conversation.

"I'm so glad you asked!"Father responded with a sarcastic voice of excitement. Then for a few seconds they both stopped talking and I could hear the sound of clanking armor but that also died seconds later. Then I could hear the sound of something leaving a scabbard, it was hard to forget the sound with Father having me enrolled in lessons in fighting, then a second later I heard it go right back in.

"Oh my, I hope this is another jest of your's jarl."

"My dear Saranto, a man such as myself doesn't have time to jest, but I do hope to see you there."

"I…I'll think about it, but if this doesn't get you to hear what I have to say than I'll see about getting someone else to talk reason to you."

With what seemed to be the end of the discussion, footsteps began to pick up, the justiciar and her entourage must have been leaving. It'd probably be best if I did the same, who knew what father would think of me suddenly appearing. I could just apologize tomorrow if I didn't forget to tell him at breakfast, but that was if I didn't change my mind later. Gods, I wish that life could just be simple or I couldn't be so complex.

Slowly I started to back up while I was still crouched and still looking forward. Which would come to bite me in the ass seconds later.

"AASSSHHHYY!" a shrill voice elicited from meer steps behind me. I felt my heart explode, I just wanted to sneak away, I slowly stood up. I turned around to the sight of a girl dressed in a flamboyant ball gown made with bright reds, greens, purples, and yellows. It took me a second to realize but the girl was running at me from the short space between us and her arms were outstretched to grab me. I tried to back up but only succeeded in tripping into a backwards tumble.

When I finished that tumble, for the split second I had to focus, I was on my back facing the ceiling. Then the next I had a beautiful girl highlighted with color laying ontop of me. Then just to top it off she had her soft hands cupping my face. I was speechless, my eyes stayed locked with her's, we just layed they're. Neither of us made a move to break our position, so I took the time to to just examine her.

First I scanned over her sharp face, her bones coming in to make her look so fragile, so sweet. I followed the edges of her face to her pointy ears and after that to her eyes, Hazel and green, Black and blue, the diverse set of colors making her even more unique. But it was her brown curls sprinkled with ash that made the perfect partner with her ever so lightly tanned skin. These traits are probably what made her one of the beauties of the keep, and what earned her the name, Shanna The Exotic.

She was the only Wood Elf to be apart of the court which only supported her name more. Her parents were also apart of the court till word had spread that they weren't the best of parents. That eventually led to Shanna becoming the only Wood Elf here, it had been several years since that event. After they were expunged father had taken her as if she was his own. Giving her whatever she desired as long as it was reasonably possible. Within that time she had become the sister I never had just like Zarcath had become my brother.

There was the slight problem or more so convenience when I reflect on it. Shanna hadn't seen me the way I saw her, she seemed to see more than a sister in me. It was probably because I was a year older than her and I had set most of her life for her when she had got rid of her parents. She was quite clingy to me and anytime she was around me she lost all thoughts of personal space. My thoughts were confirmed once, about a year ago, during a very unforgettable night.

It started mostly as a normal day, woke up, ate, worked, played, screwed around, and got tired eventually. It was when I was off to bed that it started to get weird. I had gotten to my room to find the door ajar but at the time it didn't register. I just went in closed the door behind me plunging the room into darkness. As I made my way to bed I tossed my clothes off left and right till I was naked in bed. I hadn't been able to tell she was even in the bed with me till she grabbed me by around the waist with one hand and covered my mouth with the other.

I could remember just screaming and thrashing in her grasp. Only problems being she was muffling my screams and her arm hand me locked to her body so hard. Only when she started to tell me to calm down did I stop and calm down. We ended up laying in my bed, naked, facing each other, talking about life. I can't even remember why I wasn't telling her to leave or what the fuck was wrong with her. While we were talking though the question of love interest was brought up. I told her that love wasn't really on my mind at the time.

After I told her that I could remember the following silence that ensued. After a couple minutes I broke that silence by asking her the same question back. Then she said it, she didn't even hold back,"You're the one I love". She leaned in on the couple of inches separating us and gave me a full hearted kiss on the cheek. When she withdrew from my face I just locked eyes with her and listened to the sound of my rapidly beating heart. There must have been some sort of magic that was in the air because what followed was quite magical.

I found myself returning that same kiss to the cheek to her and telling her that I thought I found my first love. We had smiled and giggled for what felt like minutes, but when we were done I had my arm around her waist. Our legs were in a tangle together and her back was pressed against my chest. My face pressed into her magnificent hair, covering what felt like my entire head, the sweet scent of wild flowers creeping into my senses. We fell asleep like that until morning came and I found we change positions.

After that event of ours we continued on with our lives. We would continue on just like before but we'd be closer than before with what we did and knew. It had happened at least three more times since then and I couldn't imagine it stopping anytime soon and even though it was taboo I didn't want it to stop. It made me feel closer to her and it gave me a feeling of bliss. I would go a month or two of just feeling like horse crap only to be saved by one of our little "sleep overs". There was however a line that we drew, we wouldn't go all the way, we'd only just sleep together, naked or clothed.

"Ash...Ash...Ash...Ash...ASH!"Shanna screamed in my face, finally pulling me out of my inner thoughts. I didn't respond to her, I tilt my head back, turning everything upside down in my vision, nobody in sight. I brought my head back up as fast as a snake and planted a quick kiss on her cheek. She took in a breath and just held it, her cheeks turned a light crimson, she released it in a quick gasp and rolled off me.

"Thanks a lot Shanna." I told her in my, I'm gonna kill you later, voice.

"No problem." she said blissfully, still not having recovered from the kiss.

"Oh Ashadon!" Father yelled from the main hall, his voice almost sounded excited.

I slowly pushed myself onto my elbows till I was able to roll over and push myself to a stand. I gave Shanna a glance to see if it was worth helping her up. She was still trying to recover, yeah, it wasn't worth it. I then took the couple steps to make it past the open doors and into the hall. As soon as I turned right, to continue walking to fathers hole in the wall, I choked on my breath. The hall had clearly become more...magical than I had remembered it being.

A long stone table was floating through the air towards the center of the room. Colorful lights were rapidly rushing to different areas of the room like they were trying to find the perfect one to claim for themselves. Then the table landed and from the chef's kitchen, across the table, different sets of floating table sets came rushing out and laying on the table and then just as fast ejecting themselves back into the air.

All the sudden I felt about ten different points of pressure firmly grip my buttocks. In response the muscles in my butt tightened so hard I thought I was gripping whatever was gripping my ass, with my ass. I shrieked a little, I was really off my game today, instantly turning on whatever grabbed my butt. Low and behold it was Shanna, she had some courage to do this in the main frickin hall, there were two guards at least a couple yards away. Still she just looked at me with a grin and pushed me forward towards father's chamber.

As I closed the last couple feet to the entrance, I began to hear father mumbling what seemed to be yes and no, I could feel the butterflies in my stomach begin to awake. Finally getting to see inside the chamber I was able to find Xaria and two more mages standing on Father's right, probably the reason he was mumbling.

"Hello daughter!" Father said with what seemed to be genuine excitement.

"Hey Father." I was still a bit under the impression that something bad was coming.

"So I know that we didn't have a good morning or afternoon considering our talk earlier. Which reminds me, you had missed the ball earlier which was apart of your birthday as usual. If you want we could have another one tomorrow or maybe the day after?"

What was he talking about, we didn't have a talk, and they had a ball without me? Don't get me wrong, I wasn't the social butterfly that one would usually find at a ball, but it was a ball for me but they had it without me.

"No, it's okay, I don't think we need to have two in a row, I assume that everyone danced their hardest and probably won't be able to dance again for awhile."

"You should have been there," Shanna butted in from behind" there was guests by the dozens from all around skyrim! So many different dresses and suits from all around, but as you should know, yours truly won the best dress and was crowned the fairest of them all!" The joy was practically glowing off her as she stole the conversation to tell me all she saw while she was there.

"Shanna," Father injected into Shanna trying to tell me about the cake they had," I don't think Ash wants to hear about her own party she missed." This caused Shanna to apologize yet I was still a bit interested in what kind of cake they had this year.

"So let's go back to where I was before Shanna spoiled what happened this afternoon. I was about to tell you that tomorrow we are going to be having a dinner party as a part two to your seventeenth birthday celebration! Yes that's right, we shall be having a part two to your birthday."

Clearly this wasn't my Father, this must have been some stranger that looked exactly like Father but just not the same. Father didn't just get angry one part of the day and then change the next part. Now a part two to my birthday was pretty much normal due to the fact one was made up of people I barely knew, which must have been today's ball, and the other one my closests friends and family so pretty much Father, Xaria, Shanna, Zarcath, and me. Although it was just them as the only "guests" we usually got the guards and other members of the keep to join us to have a decent sized party. The only other thing nagging at the back of my mind was that Father had called it a dinner party.

"Oh...ok." I probably made that sound like I was the most unhappy person in the keep, and he took notice.

"What do you mean, oh?" he didn't put it bluntly, but said it with a caring tone. He said it like I just crushed his opportunity at another couple months of normality, but still put in a tone that said that I was the one that mattered, not him.

"No...it's just that I thought you had something else that you wanted to say so I feel like this moment was very...anti-climatic?"

"Oh, don't worry there's more that needs to be said but I'll save that for another time."

Oh yeah, later would be fine, preferably when it was just us and presumably Zarcath. I wasn't going to let myself take the brunt of Father's wrath. After all Zarcath had been the one to supply us both with the ale, but Father had been the one to buy it. Maybe I could use that to turn the conversation back on him and put him on the defensive. Then again that would probably land us without drink and leave us slowly dieing on the inside. If I had to kill a person to get some I probably would.

Turning back to the conversation at hand I found myself the center of it. Father began asking me what I wanted, where I wanted it, and how I wanted it. Needless to say the next two hours was me planning most of my own party. Shanna throwing in her opinion about my choices and what she'd think was better. Father writing down everything I was saying and occasionally talking to Xaria. When it was finally over I found myself walking the corridors with Shanna and making some small talk.

"Mind if I stay the night?" Shanna just asked out of nowhere as we came to a crossroads. I wanted to say no because the party was tomorrow, but it was my birthday.

"Yeah...that'd be nice." I just gave her a smile.

"Awesome, I'm gonna stop by my room really quick and then I'll meet you in yours." Right as I was about to answer her she bolted down the hall on my right. Whatever she was grabbing must have been quite important for how she was running in her gown. That spiked my interest a bit, it was my birthday and she wanted to grab something before bed. Although she didn't say it was for me it had to be for me, but that'd be selfish of me to think that.

Deciding to drop any thoughts of what she was going to get I made the short trip back to my room. When I got to where I could actually see my door I found it slightly ajar. Either she beat me here, which was practically impossible since she had to come from behind me. Or I was stupid to enough to leave my door open again, most likely the later since I had been drunk. I just decided to screw it and walk in, closing the door behind me.

Taking a second to scan the room everything seemed in order. Nothing was out of order, the kegs were still next to the bed and...Shit the kegs were still here. Shanna still didn't know that I was drinking and I didn't feel to keen on letting her know tonight. Barely even thinking about what I was doing I picked up the kegs and rushed over to the closet. Opening the door I looked to see if the kegs had any liquids left, they were empty, I rushed and just threw them in without a second look. I quickly shut the door in case Shanna happen to finally make her grand entrance.

Even after another minute of me just sitting on my bed she didn't show. It couldn't be to much longer even if she walked since she was just at the other end of the hall. I decided just to start without her, so I striped down, put out the fire, and lit a bedside candle. Then another minute passed of me just lying under the covers, watching the door, waiting for Shanna. At this point I was actually considering getting dressed again and going to her room to she what was taking so long. Only when I propped myself on my shoulder did I hear footsteps outside the door.

The door cracked open and light pierced the darkness that still consumed the room, only to be covered again as the figure slipped in. As the figure got closer the light illuminated it, till it turned out to be Shanna in her nightgown. When she was finally steps from the bed I could see that she was holding a wooden pot that took up a little more than both her hands to hold.

"Sorry it took me awhile, got caught up in what to wear, besides that I did get you a present!" While mentioning her dress she gave a slight twirl, trying to get me to admire it. When I looked at it closer I noticed it probably wasn't the dress she wanted me to notice, but what I could see through the dress. It was entirely see through, her breasts were practically exposed to me, the curves of her body outlined in a shimmer of the loosely threaded dress. She really wanted to make my birthday special, it was really working, was it weird she was turning me on?

"Yeah...that really...is nice." However she got away with making dresses like that, I had no idea.

"Glad you like it but I think it's time for the present." She crouched next to the bed, the pot resting in her hands. So I just grabbed the beaded top of the pot and lifted it off the base. Placing the top on my bedside table, I looked in the pot. In it a white substance that looked like it had the consistency of a paste filled the pot to the brim. I had no possible clue of what it could have been, it didn't look edible, definitely wasn't makeup.

"Thanks?" I said as I stared into the pot, it was just too damn intriguing.

"What's wrong, I thought you'd like it, don't you know what this is?" she shoved the pot closer to my face. Strangely enough the paste had a scent now that it was closer, wildflowers, just like whatever Shanna used for her perfumes.

"No...not really." Shanna looked a bit disappointed, but it wasn't like I knew what everything was.

"Well from what the woman at the stall said, it's a lotion, a very special lotion. It has effects that make your skin more sensitive than usual. It also has some things in it that make your skin brighter and fuller." While she was finishing, it almost sounded like the lady who sold the stuff had possessed Shanna and tried to sell it to me.

"That sounds fantastic, I guess I'll have to use that sometime." I went to grab the pot but she pulled it to her chest, I frowned.

"Well that sometime is going to be now." She grabbed the sheets covering me and threw them across the bed where they hit the wall and sank down. Now it was me, lying naked on the bed covering my more private area with a hand while Shanna was just standing next to me with the bowl in hand. She then moved to get on the bed, knees first and then slowly crawled on top of me, her legs making an open triangle with my legs in it.

"Damn…." That's all I could get out, any attempts at get anything else out ended in me catching my breath. She really took the initiative tonight, she seemed really aggressive, or horny. If she was horny though than I was screwed and we're gonna cross the line tonight. The only highlight for tonight, other than maybe the possible sex, will probably be the massage from what seemed like was about to happen.

Breaking my jumbled thoughts I watched Shanna as she set the bowl on the bed and took a small scoop out of it with her hands. Slowly she rubbed the material between her fingers and over her hands. Then she brought her hands down onto my hips, and oh gods did it feel good. I wasn't really sure if it was just her touch or that paste really had some magical properties. I quivered under her hands, that only prompted her to start working faster along my body. Now I was squirming trying to escape her touch but it was like they were attached to my body.

Finally I couldn't keep quiet, I let out a noise somewhere in between a cat's purr and a person's moan. It had just felt right, but it was just so awkward to make in a room usually devote to silent thought. I looked up at Shanna who was also surprised by the sound, but she must have liked it because her slick hands slid right onto my breasts. This time I was louder and Shanna was enjoying it since she was smiling and laughing, just enjoying it all together. My breaths started to pick up as I felt my body heat rise and tension build throughout my muscles. The tension was killing me, I could only imagine would it would feel like to release it.

"Shanna move out of the way, you're blocking my view!" a voice yelled from behind Shanna. At first I was to caught in the moment to register that someone else was in the room. Next thing I knew Shanna was squealing and holding onto me, all that tension that was in me a second ago was now a dead weight in my body. I looked over her back and past her ass to see a figure looking right back at me. The figure instantly bolt for the door, but to their surprise the door was locked. They started to fiddle with the lock on the door, I was going to fucking kill however it was.

I pushed Shanna off me and quickly leaned over the bedside, grabbing my nightgown and slipping it on. I heard the lock on the door click as I reached my rapier lying against my bedside table. I made way for the door as the figure got through it and into the hall. Once out the door I made pursuit of the figure, turning down hall after hall, where were the guards? Finally I caught him in a hall that ended in a dead end.

"It's time to die whoever you think you are." The figure still kept running down the hall and that started to really make me mad because as we got further down I started to have an idea of who the figure might be. Finally the figure got to the last door and swung it right open, he's going to get my sword right up his ass. As I hit the door the lock on the inside clicked, and everything went silent except for my panting.

At this point I didn't know how to get in, till it slapped me right in the face. I walked myself a couple steps to the left of the door and began scanning the wall, every room had a secret container with an extra key in case the main key disappeared. Finally I found a slight difference in the bricks and pushed the brick into the wall. It pushed back out to revealing a open container, but what was supposed to be inside wasn't. He probably knew that he was going to get caught sometime and took the damn key. I looked back down the hall in frustration, thinking about what to do next, only to find a fully and properly dressed Shanna.

"Is it him!?" She yelled down to me, with my hands on my head, I nodded to her. Funny how she could also tell that it was him just from where I was standing. She came running down the hall till she was standing at the door banging on it and shouting at our peeper to come out and face us. Then I got a half decent idea on how to get into his room.

"Shanna do me a favour and stand back." I walked up to the door as she backed up to the other side of the hall. I placed my palm flat against the keyhole on the door and focused some magic into it. Slowly frost began to spread across the lock and eventually the door. Our "friend" on the other side must have noticed because the area where frost would have continued to spread stopped and began to retreat back towards the lock. I tried harder and put more of my power into the spell and at the same time drew my rapier with my other hand.

What I was about to do wasn't probably the most practical use for a sword, but it was my only chance for the time being. I assumed the Internal lock mechanism was completely frozen by now so it should work. I quickly withdrew my hand and took the point of my rapier to the keyhole. I rammed it in as fast as I could, the sounds of shattering parts sounding with each thrust, hopefully the tip didn't break. It must have scared our perpetrator because the door finally stopped it's faint glow and and the keyhole remained frozen. Finally withdrawing my sword, I switched to the hilt, and began hitting the frozen plate with my buttoned pommel.

After a good minute of bashing the plate smashed showing all the fractured insides. Digging it all out I found the lock itself and pulled it out of it's hole. I grabbed the door with intense ferocity and threw the door open to find a mattress fitting the door, but that was short lived because Shanna followed up behind me with a kick to the mattress. The room now shown to us except for the areas clouded in shadows, but right in the middle stood the now illuminated stalker, Zarcath.

"You're going to die piece of shit!" Shanna yelled as she ran at zarcath.

"Please stop, I'm sorry!" he pleaded as he tried to dodge Shanna who was trying to grab him.

"Well maybe if you didn't sneak into my room this wouldn't be happening!" I threw myself into the mix and kicked out one of his legs as he tried to dodge Shanna's grab. We instantly pinned him to the ground making sure he didn't get a chance to run.

"Please guys, just let me go and we can just forget what happened!"

"Ya know what's tomorrow Zarcath!" I yelled into his face. He cringed slightly and the sight of me baring my teeth.

"Your...birthday." he turned away and stretched his words as he responded.

"Yes… and do you know what people get on their birthdays!?"

"Presents." he answered the same way as before.

"Yep and so far I've gotten one present today and I think that you promised me one earlier today also!"

"No I didn't!" he yelled without hesitation, but instantly he regretted it and stared and me like I was death.

"Well I remember quite clearly you did. I even remember you promising to give one to Shanna even though it wasn't her birthday!" he started to struggle harder at my comment but didn't seem like he was going to answer anytime soon.

"So tonight you're going to let us choose what we want as presents. Then you're going to give us a second present on our actual birthdays, how does that sound!?" he thrashed harder and began hissing but didn't try to really attack.

"Well that sounded like a yes to me, what do you think Shanna!?"

"Oh yeah, I'm pretty sure that I heard a yes!" Just looking at her I could tell she felt the same as me.

"I think that because tomorrow's my birthday, you can go first Shanna." She smiled with the satisfaction of having the chance to go first, but that quickly died with the smile on her face.

"What's wrong?" I asked, dropping my fierce stature and asking her normally.

"What do I take?" That question blew my mind because I really hadn't thought of what we could take.

"Well we can't just take his stuff," I stopped a bit stumped" but we can take him!" I said maybe a bit to cheekily. Zarcath stopped his thrashing completely and stared between the two of us.

"Please, I'd like to stay virgin a bit longer." he began to quiver and what looked like a tear formed in his right eye.

"You must be some kind of idiot to think we'd screw you right after you creeped on us when we were, NAKED!" I finished hard, why would he think after all he'd done he'd get free sex.

"Well If you purity matters so much to you I wouldn't mind taking it from you." Shanna said, out of everything she could say she would actually consider taking his virginity. Probably not her best trade considering she was also still a virgin to my knowledge. After that Zarcath began to actually cry and give a weird whimper. We followed up with slight chuckles as he continued to cry.

"I'm just kidding, but I will take something that matters from you." She took his left hand and balled it into a fist. Then a slight glow traveled from her hands to his balled hand. She pinned his hand back against the floor, but Zarcath's hand didn't uncurl.

"What...What...What did you do to my hand!?" Zarcath began to hyperventilate as the veins in his arm strained against the skin in an attempt to move his fingers.

"Well I've paralyzed your hand so you can't move your fingers. If you're wondering why I chose your left you can think about your nightlife and you'll find your answer." she smiled as Zarcath began to realize what she meant. His face just deadpanned, no longer did he shed a tear or whimper, he laid silent with a sort of dignity about himself. Although we knew he had no dignity after what happened tonight.

"And what will you be taking from me tonight princess?" he said so calmly and flat like he had fallen into a pit and knew of no way out. It probably would have been easy to just ask Shanna to do the same to his other hand to make sure he didn't "try". But I wanted something different, I wanted to take something more visual. An idea came to mind and I kept my composure as I said it.

"I...I will be taking your beauty." as I finished the room turned to silence, but then Zarcath's mouth started to curve. He started a suppressed chuckle that broke and became an open laughter.

"What's that supposed to mean!?" he laughed. I heated up my hand with some fire magic, but not so hot to that flames generated, just enough to burn hair.

"I'ma burn your hair off!" I laughed causing him to to shut up and try to push away from my now descending hand.

Today was quite the day, a lot of bad and I guess what could be called good. A fight with dad, a freak out with Zarcath, time with Shanna, a soothing bath, being peeped on, getting revenge. Well maybe not too much of each but enough to even out. Tonight though was probably a decent night if anything. I just hope every night doesn't turn into a ruined massage.