Disclaimer: I only own a copy of Skyrim.
This is shorter than the rest, but I wanted a cliffhanger.
We decided to just leave our big items behind and just carry basics with us. A carriage ride later, we found ourselves in Whiterun. Parwen had requested visiting before Dawnstar, and I happily agreed to go visit my Companion friends.
Ysolda happily agreed for Parwen and Karita to stay with her and Farkas in their home. I took up Henrik's offer to bunk with him in his room in Jorvaskrr, like old times. It was only for a week, and I would get a lifetime of being able to sleep next to my wife once we got to Dawnstar, so neither one of us minded.
One evening while we were there, Parwen and I were in the Companions hall. It was late into the day, the sun having set nearly an hour ago. Then Karita and a familiar face made their way into Jorvaskrr.
"Hey Babette," I greeted. Babette's eyes grew wide with surprise at me before she smiled and waved.
"Mathies!" Karita squealed. "Babette said that her and Nazir are going to Dawnstar too! They don't leave till Mondas, can we please, please, please travel with them? I like Babette! She's super nice!"
I glanced at the little girl and shrugged my shoulders.
"I don't mind staying an extra few days, unless Parwen has a problem with it?" I said, glancing at my wife. As I predicted, she beamed at the idea.
"Excellent!" Babette smiled. "I'll tell Nazir. He also says he'd love if if you two would like to join us for dinner."
Parwen and I agreed. Babette motioned for us to follow her, so we stood and walked arm in arm behind the two young girls, who ran and jumped around as we walked to Breezehome. I opened the door for the three girls before following them inside and shutting the door myself.
This house seemed so...familiar...I felt like I knew the entire house, and I never remembered stepping foot in there until today.
The door locking caught my attention, and I saw Babette pocket the key before immediately shifting my gaze to the cooking pot in the middle of the room. Nazir was standing, looking at me with large, shocked eyes as he shook his head.
"By Sithis," he muttered. "Babette, my friend, you were right and I apologize."
"I told you he had the fool's grin!" Babette argued.
I stared at the two in confusion.
"Well?" Nazir asked, raising an eyebrow. "Don't you remember us?"
"I remember you from the road," I admitted. "Nothing else...but..."
"But," Babette repeated, voice urging me to go on.
"I don't remember anything before my seventh year," I admitted.
"Nothing?" Nazir asked.
"Nothing," I confirmed. Babette looked at Nazir, who nodded. She cleared her throat and began to speak.
"You look exactly like our Keeper," she began. "He and our Listener had a son. The Listener had twins, a boy and a girl, before Ulfric Stormcloak broke into this very home and took her son and daughter, who would be around your ages today. Nazir thinks you're them, but I know you are. You look too much like our Keeper, a mirror image of him. And you, Karita, you look like a female version of Vicente, who is one of the twins. I believe Ulfric never knew Listener had twins and just let him be."
"Keeper?" I repeated. "Listener? You mean..."
"Dark Brotherhood, yes," Nazir confirmed before I could even ask.
"It would explain why Brelda always called me a child of Sithis," I murmured, sitting in a nearby chair. Parwen put her hands on my shoulders comfortingly. I stared at Babette questioningly. "But you're..."
"A vampire," she explained, flashing a grin. That was why her smile was off to me. "I'm over 300 years old."
"What's my real name?" I asked the two.
"Lucien was Listener's eldest. Amaya was the female twin," Babette replied.
"Are you alright?" Parwen asked me softly. I nodded.
"It's just...do you know why I knew were Karita was?" I mainly thought aloud. Everybody waited for an answer. "On my last job for the Companions, I had to go to Dawnstar. We arrived a day early, so we got settled in the inn. And in the inn...I heard this woman...talking to me. She said my parents had been praying for me, but that I was too far to hear her voice until now. Then she said to go to Riften and get Karita from Honorhall because she's my sister, and then to return to Dawnstar. Honestly, I would have never checked Riften if Parwen and I never stopped to marry on our way to Windhelm."
"You got married?" Babette squealed. Parwen smiled and confirmed my story. "Oh, I just knew you two would end up together. Oh don't give me that look, Nazir. While you were here sleeping all the time, I got to see these two make love eyes at each other for months upon months."
"We married," I repeated. "And...I'm still not sure who was talking...or why."
"Nazir, do you believe it's crazy to think that maybe the Night Mother talked to Lucien because the Listener is gone?" Babette asked the Redguard. He shrugged.
"I'm too old to follow all this," he grumbled as he finished stirring the pot.
"The Keeper would know for certain if you are Lucien and Amaya," Babette told us. "He'd know his children anywhere."
"Do we have any siblings besides Vicente?" Karita finally spoke up.
"You have another little brother and sister," Babette said a smile. "Garnag and Alisanne."
Nazir scowled.
"The Listener promised that she would have no more after Vicente and Amaya," he grumbled. "Said she hated pregnancy, but ended up having Garnag. And before she could promise to not bear another, she was showing with Alisanne. I bet all the septims in my coin purse that when she comes back, she'll either be showing or carrying another in her arms."
"Don't listen to him," Babette said, waving Nazir off. "He loves kids, but he doesn't want to admit it." Nazir scowled at her again.
"Dig in," he said, tapping his stirring spoon on the side of the cooking pot.
Babette eased into her coffin before the sun began to rise that Morndas morning, the coffin she had on our first meeting. She admitted that her statement was an obvious lie.
Parwen and Karita sat in the back with the coffin, Karita excitably chatting with Babette through the wood and Parwen napping. I sat next to Nazir in the driver's seat, catching up with lost time. He filled in the blanks of my early years for me, and what had happened when I was discovered missing and the events beyond that up until today. The years I had forgotten slowly came back to me. I now remembered watching my parents marry, my mother rocking me in her arms and sharing my father's laughter. Their images were fuzzy though.
Babette said I looked exactly like my father, so I pictured him kind of like the image I see in the mirror, only older. I was dying to find and meet my mother. Nazir said that a year after Alisanne was born, she just seemed to vanish. No footsteps, no notes, no signs beforehand that she was going to leave, nothing. She just...disappeared. As if erased from existence, and that this deeply crushed my father.
Babette nor Nazir felt like describing my father to me in any words other than a mad jester. They did mention his name was Cicero, and Babette said that he had chest problems because of my kidnappers, but not much else was said. I worried that he was racist as well as my ex-father, Ulfric. Nazir mentioned casually that as long as you respected the Night Mother, Cicero liked you.
When we finally reached Dawnstar, Nazir had the horse put in the stables and Babette was freed from her coffin before the carriage was stored behind the stable. Parwen, Karita and I followed Nazir and Babette out past Dawnstar. It was a short walk to a large black door.
"What...is life's...greatest...illusion?" a dark voice from the door asked.
"Innocence, my brother," Babette replied.
"Welcome...home..."
The door opened, and we went inside to protect ourselves from the hard snowy weather.
"Keeper!" Nazir barked as we walked down the first set of stairs.
"He's in his room," a boy replied from his position in front of the Night Mother. I looked closely at him as he put fresh flowers at the corpse's feet. He looked exactly like Karita, if Karita was a boy. He eyed us cautiously. "Who are they?"
"I'll tell you when we get Cicero. Go find Gnarg and Alisanne," Nazir ordered. The boy nodded as he stood, rushing out the room to find his little brother and sister. "Cicero! We have something for you!"
"You best not be jesting with poor Cicero!" a voice shrieked back at him. Did he really just refer to himself in the third person? I glanced at Parwen, who was staring off emotionless. Karita was staying close to Babette.
"We're not jesting, fool!" he scowled. "Just come here."
Parwen slipped her hand into mine and squeezed as we waited for Cicero to come.