Epilogue

- Several Months Later -

"Hello, love, how was your day?" Balagog asked her as soon as she stepped inside Proudspire Manor.

Gerda sat down tiredly at their table, "Oh, you know, the usual. Bandits, beasts, thieves, the occasional dragon flying away from me…" She pulled her Ebony Gauntlets off and grinned at him. "Poor beasts learned not to mess with me, and yet the Bandits still have not. Makes me wonder why it's the people that are considered smart." She took Balagog's hand in her own and warmly asked, "And yours?"

"The Emperor has arrived." Balagog said quietly.

"What? Already?" Gerda asked, startled. "I thought the weding was planned for next month."

"Plans have changed, apparently." Balagog sighed, "Commander Maro is taking no chances with the Emperor's security, despite the fact there were no further attempts on either my life or any Imperial officer under his command."

"So… when is he going to ask for you?" Gerda asked him, a bit uncertain. Balagog was in a strange mood today. He seemed almost… sad.

"Tomorrow evening," he said with a sigh. He looked away, "After that, my business in Skyrim will be concluded."

Oh.

No. Not yet. Gerda was not ready for him to leave yet.

"Do you… want to leave?" She asked him in a trembling voice.

Balagog turned to her in surprise. "I… Do you want me to stay?" he asked her instead of answering.

Gerda took both his hands into hers, "Yes, Balagog. I do." At his relieved smile, she added, "I want to stay with you, no matter where we live. If… if you want to leave Skyrim, I could go with you," she told him a bit shakily.

Balagog squeezed her hand and sighed in relief.

"Gerda," he suddenly seemed even more nervous than before. He took a deep breath, "I love you. Will you marry me?"

Her heart almost burst. She shakily stood up. Then she pulled Balagog to his feet and kissed him for all she was worth.

As they parted, Gerda only said one word.

"Yes."

-balablob-balablob-balablob-

A/N: To anyone interested: I posted some Gerda screenshots on flickr. The links are on my profile :)

Also, here's some more backstory for Gerda, specifically how she dealt with all those Daedra trying to steal her soul.

Warning: Major quest spoilers. (But hey, it's 2014, if you haven't played those quests yet, you never will, so read on.)

Companions questline

"So you want me to give my soul to Hircine?" Gerda asked incredulously.

"Well… yes," Skjor added in his usual harsh and direct tone.

Gerda just lifted her eyebrows at them, "How about no?"

Skjor scowled.

Looked like she was not so popular with him anymore. Oh well.

(After several jobs and retrieving even more fragments of the Axe of That One Old Guy she asked Kodlak if he had any job for her. He sent her to wipe out the Glenmoril Witches Coven…)

Dawnguard

"So you want me to give my soul to creepy super-Necromancers or give my soul to Molag Bal, the God of Rape?" Gerda sighed. Not again… "How about no?"

Serana crossed her arms… and pushed her breasts up.

'Sorry, girl, that doesn't work on me.' Gerda thought.

"How do you plan to defeat my father then? As long as he exists, the Vampire attacks on innocents will not stop." Serana stated coldly.

'Oooh, manipulation.' Gerda thought sarcastically. Then she thought about it.

The Thief way failed her. She was not made for sneaking around. She was and always will be a Warrior.

Gerda looked down at her Necklace of Disease Immunity. Then she remembered that she was very good at killing Vampires. Her face stretched with an evil grin.

"Well, the only way to stop Harkon is to kill him," she said. "So, while we are here, inside Castle Volkihar…"

Serana just sighed sadly.

(And then they killed every Vampire inside. Aside from Serana, of course. Isran was a bit surprised, but very happy to hear the good news.

Serana seduced some other poor sod to go with her to the Soul Cairn to find her mother… They never returned. All others gave up on the whole creepy 'sacrificing their soul' thing as a bad idea. No one wanted to become a vampire either.

Gerda eventually stumbled upon the very long cave that led her to the Snow Elf and the whole Vase Full of Water challenge. She went with it, sure, why not?

When Vyrthur told her that the Prophecy was fake, she simply snorted. Then she killed him - LIKE A DRAGONBORN.)

Solstheim

"So you want me to give my soul to… whatever Daedra that book belongs to?" Gerda asked, not even really surprised this time. "How about no?"

She felt betrayed. She thought she finally found someone who will share her unwillingness to enslave herself to Daedra among the Skaal, but here Frea all but asked her to hand over the soul of a Dragonborn to the Daedric Gods to save their little village.

"We have no choice!" Frea exclaimed desperately. "We must defeat Miraak. There is no other way!"

Gerda glared at her, "There is always a way." She snorted, "Maybe I'll call for… an old friend. He already sent one Daedric artifact back to Oblivion. He might know what to do."

"But what about…?" Frea started but Gerda didn't want to hear it.

"If you have a problem with this Miraak," she started, then added forcefully, "go fight him yourself!"

She turned on her heel and walked away. If Frea was so desperate, she could go and touch that Black Book on her own.

(Later, she came back with Erandur. It seemed to be too late, as Miraak managed to open a portal to Solstheim, but Gerda was a powerful Dragonborn too.

She arrived at his temple with the Skaal and together they put Miraak down… again. Those tentacled eyeballs looked a bit… miffed but Gerda didn't really care.

She spent several months dealing with problems on Solstheim and wiping out the last of Miraak's cultists. Some of which wanted to worship her, now that she defeated 'The First'.

Errr, no thanks.)

Mage's College

"…your actions have proved your readiness to lead the College of Winterhold." Quaranir stated grandiously.

"How about n… wait, what?" Gerda was shocked. Could it be? The only faction that did not ask for her soul was the one that everyone accused of and hated for it? That… was unexpected.

Tolfdir quickly jumped in, when he saw Gerda was speechless, "You are to be the Archmange? A great idea! I can think of no one more deserving of that title than you." He all but threw the Archmage's robes and the key to his personal quarters at her.

"Wha…" Before Gerda got over her shock, he left. The Elves left too... and took the Eye with them. Gerda suddenly realized she stood there alone. "What just happened?"

She looked down at the robes in her hands. They were still covered in Aren's blood. How very… thoughtful of Tolfdir to hand them over like this.

Well. Looked like she was the Archmange now.

…Huh.

Extra: 'Poor beasts learned not to mess with me…'

Gerda ran along the road near Kolskeggr Mine, when she was set upon by three Forsworn looters.

She readied her sword and shield. Once they ran close enough to her, she roared her fierce battlecry… when suddenly she heard an answering dragon roar, close by.

'Gods, not right now…' she thought, annoyed.

The dragon swooped down and landed on the road right in front of them. Then it turned towards the Forsworn and did its best to burn them to a crisp.

Well, Gerda thought to herself, what a nice dragon. She need not get involved… if the dragon wanted to kill her enemies first, she wouldn't complain.

Once the Forsworn were dead, Gerda readied her shield once again.

The dragon took one look at her… and promptly flew away.

… Now Gerda felt kind of guilty for almost attacking it.

(This actually happened in the game. True story, bro'.)

A/N (another one):

Thank you, Zoop, for inspiring me to write this. If not for you, I never would have dared write this fic. Or write in English at all.

To anyone who doesn't yet know who lady Zoop is, find her here on fanfiction and go read her fics. She is amazingly talented and very funny. :)

You might have noticed I used some concepts from the mod Interesting NPC's. I couldn't help it, they just… fit so well. So I want to thank and give credit to Kris Takahashi, too. Check out his mod over at 3dnpc com. He's awesome.