Shortly after the Dragon attack, we had returned briefly to High Hrothgar to return the Horn to the Greybeards. They all gathered in a ceremony to formally recognize me as the Dragonborn, an unsettling reality that had already sunk in for me.

Two weeks following the Dragon attack at Kynesgrove, the three of us had formulated a plan to create a more steady income. In addition to fighting bandits, we could run a store out of the Dragon-blood territory. We had a lot of rare treasure and armor to sell from bandit raids. This loot included new sets of steel plate armor. I brought up the suggestion of selling wood carvings, but Ri'saad didn't seem willing to do so. He did, however, agree to manage the trading process. A major trading route from Windhelm to Whiterun ran by our manor. It seemed as though even the war couldn't stop private trade. While the guards were spending the day at the manor finishing construction, we took the opportunity to travel to the city of Riften, knowing of the city's history of business.

The most noticeable feature of Riften is the smell of fish wafting from the sunken canal. Looking over the edge of the deck, I saw that people lived in subterranean houses lining the structure, which was filled with unsightly green water. I didn't want to think of what was in it.

As the color of the water distracted me, I felt my coin purse being removed from my side. I turned just in time to see a man turn a corner into the alleyways. The three of us gave chase, trailing the man to our best running ability, but even I couldn't match his speed. Once we had reached a graveyard behind the Temple of Mara, we had completely lost him. Thankfully, the coin purse only had 50 gold pieces inside, but I was still infuriated that I was caught unaware by one of Riften's rats.

"You probably shouldn't have traveled to the city of thieves with the coin purse hanging from your belt, my Thane."

"Oh, shut up, Lydia."

"Seriously, though. Ri'saad and I have our own money to spend. We're not going to die here just because some jackass took one of our coin purses."

I tried to shrug it off, and led us onward to the city market. I was crossing a canal bridge when a male voice called to me. "Is this your first time in Riften?"

Caught off-guard, it took me a minute to track the voice down. "Excuse me?"

"Right here, lad," he said as I found him on the bridge. He was a ragged-looking man with a light-weight black beard. "You don't look like you know the city, looking at where you keep your money."

Too embarrassed to be upset, I questioned him. "What makes you think I'm not familiar with thievery?"

"If you were familiar with thieves, you'd be smarter while you were in the center of the art." At that remark, Lydia scoffed and rolled her eyes.

"I used to steal to support my mother. I suppose you know how that feels?"

"Not exactly, but a lot of people down here do," he said as he turned to the market. "I don't know if you'd be interested in helping us out a little?"

"If you don't mind me bringing this by my parters, here."

"I've got nothing better to do than wait."

I turned Ri'saad and Lydia to the opposite side of the bridge. The housecarl had some choice words. "You can't be fucking serious! These are criminals!"

"They don't kill people. Most of them are poor, and have no other way to support themselves."

"That doesn't mean we should join them, Karal'e. It makes no sense. It goes against our values."

"I don't think it does entirely. Haven't you heard of how the Thieves Guild used to control this city? What if we bring it up to its former glory? We need allies in this fight, Lydia, and this is a Stormcloak city."

Ri'saad, the passive listener, nodded in agreement.

She crossed her arms, and reluctantly agreed. "All right, I guess it's your call, anyways."

We turned back to the bearded man, who leaned relaxed against the railing. "Do you have an answer?"

"What do you need from us?"

The man frowned, and looked toward the merchant's plaza. "We do favors for the people in town. One of those merchants over there, the Dunmer named Brand-Shei, has been quite the thorn in our side. We need him to mind his own business. I'm going to create a distraction in the plaza while you go to the jewelry stand run by Madesi, the Argonian. Steal something from Madesi's strongbox at his stand and plant it on Brand-Shei's person."

Just as he promised, the man strode into the plaza and beckoned for the citizens' attention. Brand-Shei and Madesi sat beside each other on a pile of boxes. The Dunmer was growing annoyed with the man's antics. "Oh, dear. What's Brynjolf up to now?"

The Argonian shook his head. "Probably another scam for our money. It won't work out for him."

Just as they were having that exchange, I was making quick work of the Argonian's strongbox with my lockpicks. The lock broke easily, and I took a ring from inside. Making sure to look as casual and innocuous as possible, I walked to a spot where I could see where Brand-Shei was easily. As Brynjolf told the people of some sort of amazing elixir, I crept behind the boxes that the Dunmer sat on, unaware. With deft hands, I slipped the ring into his rear pocket, and hastily snuck away.

Brynjolf dispersed the crowd, most of whom wandered away, shaking their heads. He walked up to me, back at the bridge. "Good job. Here's your pay," he said as he dropped a bag of coins in my hand.

"That's it?"

"Well, if you want to do more for us, find us down in the Ratways at The Ragged Flagon. It's a bar where only the best thieves in town organize. I suppose I'll see you down there?"

I shrugged. "Possibly."

As he left, I tied the coin purse he handed to me onto the side of my belt, and left to rejoin Ri'saad and Lydia. I found them over near the inn doors. Just as I rejoined them, I again felt my gold being swiped from my side. It was the same speedy thief, who proceeded to take the same path. I wasn't about to be outsmarted, so I ran around the other side of the Temple of Mara. Just as he was about to reach the graveyard, he saw me, and stumbled over a rock. The man fell flat on his face. Just as he was scrambling to his feet, Lydia and Ri'saad grabbed him by the arms. I walked up to the man, whom I was now able to see was Breton.

"Hand me my money, and don't steal from me again," I ordered as I held out my palm. Just as the man looked up at me, his eyes widened.

"What... what are you doing here!?"

"Honestly, I don't think I know you, mister...?"

"It's... Rodryck."

That name almost seemed alien to me. It was a word from a past that I had extinguished from my mind, trying to fight away weakness. Now, here it is, slumped within the grip of the warriors of my future.

We followed Rodryck to his home. I almost couldn't call it that. We followed him down into the festering air of the canal, through a door that would barely open for us. Making my way indoors, I wasn't sure if I had ever seen such a miserable place. There were only two rooms with a couple cots in the corner, a campfire with a cooking pot, and some cheap chests for storage. There was a woman sitting on a pelt against the wall. Rodryck indicated to her with his hand. "This is my sister, Helen. We've been living here for about three months know."

Watching the ceiling to ensure that a rock wouldn't fall on me, I responded, barely able to believe what surrounded me. "Why are you here? You had a great life back home, with your father."

"A few years back, I moved to Helgen to run a blacksmith shop, until the entire town was destroyed by a dragon. We took everything we had, left and fled," he explained.

Initially not wanting him to know I was involved with that, I said, "I've heard about that. It must have been terrible for you. I'm really sorry."

"We almost literally have nothing left. Look at this scrapyard of a house! The only way I can support my sister and I is by stealing from people, I really hope you're able to understand that," he plead.

"I do, even if it isn't the most noble of causes," I said. "Say, can I pull you and your sister aside for a moment?"

I took the two into the second room and tried to explain who I was and how I was involved with the Dragons. How I learned who I was, where Ri'saad and Lydia come from, and all the way up to why I was there with him in Riften. They both listened intently, without interruption. Rodryck seemed nearly stunned.

"You always were good at putting things together. I'm sure you'll be able to handle this. If there's any way we can help...?"

"I'm not sure," I said, as a thought formed in my head. "Say, you come from a family of blacksmiths, right?"

"Yes, I just said that I ran a smith shop."

"Also, you can still use a mace?"

"I don't have one, but sure."

Helen chimed in, "I can use some healing spells."

Seeing that they were both uplifted by the opportunity of joining us, I decided that they would fit in perfectly, with a considerable amount of work on their skills. "I should be able to make room for you two, then. I don't know where you'd be able to sleep for now, though."

Rodryck shrugged. "We've had to get used to sleeping on stone. If there's a stable roof, we'll be fine."

"Just don't resume your habit of kicking me between the legs. Please."

He laughed. "I'll try not to."

Rodryck always was a brutish guy. He would often be tightening his hands together, as though he had some pent-up aggression to squeeze out of them. Perhaps connected to that, he had a short temper and little patience for "bullshit". Now, from the few times I had met Helen, I remember her being rather calm and content. Despite being from parents with aggressive personalities, she seemed to be able to keep herself together. In fact, she barely spoke to anyone. Even so, that didn't make her impersonal; Otherwise, she wouldn't have decided to move with her brother to run a blacksmith in Helgen. If she had the choice, she wouldn't interact with others very much.

Her brother wasn't much to look at. I don't mean that figuratively. He was a noticeably good-looking guy, and he was short, despite his muscle build. All-around small. So, there wasn't much of him to look at. His hair was short and wavy, and his face was (usually) clean-shaven. His sister had equally-wavy hair that flowed barely below her shoulders. She, too, was short, and like her brother, that was compensated for with strength.

This isn't knowledge from my memories in Riften. I remembered all of that from Cyrodiil. Neither of them had changed too much, and I had plenty of time to take in most of what there is to know about Rodryck. He and I spent a lot of time together, and had few other friends. We were inseparable. When we met in Riften, we were both the same, and completely different. Our personalities had remained the same, but our knowledge and purpose had evolved, and now intertwined.

Two days following the visit to Riften, the merchant's house was complete at Dragon-blood. It stood ahead of the house itself, closer to the trading route. I had just returned from an errand run. I entered the building and feasted my eyes on the walls of gems, jewelry, armors, potions, pretty much anything we could find or make. An alchemy lab stood in the right-back corner, and the counter surrounded Rodryck in the left-back. Ri'saad and Lydia entered through the back door behind the counter with more supplies from bandit raids.

"This one is back from the smelter," Ri'saad announced as he dropped a pair of steel plate greaves on the counter. "With this. Helen's at the new forge out back."

"Yup, she works iron like a Dwemer," Rodryck exclaimed. "With all this, we'll be swimming in gold." At that statement, Ri'saad turned and glared at Rodryck in near-disbelief.

"Ri'saad hopes you know what this money is for, and how Karal'e keeps track of its use."

"What if I just want to have fun with myself?"

"This one would expect more intelligent use of our resources from someone that used to live in a latrine. Our gold needs to go to research and training. We have a lot of work to do."

"So, are we not allowed to relax here?"

"Not when innocent people are burning to death because weaklings like you choose to do nothing about it."

"If you don't like laziness, how come all you do is gather supplies we don't even need? To sell them? What do we need money for!?", he enforced. "Are you jealous because I came from the richest family in Cyrodiil and you started out dirt-poor with no parents at all?"

Ri'saad yelled and ran out the back door. The others stood still, and Rodyrck went pale as everyone's eyes shifted to him in judgement. Wanting to comfort the closest friend I had in my trials, I hurried to follow Ri'saad. Hidden in the shady woods to the west was a scene of natural beauty that I could not imagine on my own. A waterfall spilled over into a spring, from which the gentle brook of cold water flowed. My eyes searched for Ri'saad, and found him sitting on a rock, examining the pool's reflection. I strode across, disrupting his image, luring his attention slowly up at me. He returned my presence with a warm smile. I slowly sat down on the rock beside him.

"He'll get used to everything eventually, you know," I assured him.

"How is this one supposed to get used to him? This isn't a game."

"He didn't mean any of that. He's a natural asshole, let him fool around. He'll come to his senses."

"This one thinks he'll get a reminder in the form of flames from the sky, and this one can't wait to watch it."

I had noticed that, the longer our duties dragged on, the angrier Ri'saad grew. This attitude seemed out-of-character for him. It upset me, because I had no idea why.

"You've been very aggressive lately. Am I doing something wrong?"

"No," he spoke, almost in a whisper. "Everyone else is. It feels like, to this one, that nobody is seeing you as a person. Like you're supposed to know what to do and where to go no matter what happens, and that as long as you're in the lead, nobody else needs to be careful."

"Most people would like to believe that their own fate is in someone else's hands. It means there's less work for them."

"So, is Ri'saad the one who is acting strange? Everybody else is just being normal? Why is this one always the odd one out?"

"Please calm down. I don't think you're acting strange. I like that you care," I said. As the bubbling sound of the brook calmed my head, I could feel our tails brush together. "It's very... endearing. I think you're just stressed to your limit. I know I am. It's like everything has left me broken."

I saw a strange and oddly pleasing look overcome him. He leaned closer to me, slowly embraced my shoulders, and whispered, "Let Ri'saad fix you, then." The feeling of longing melted within me as our mouths fit perfectly together. Over at our new home, all of our problems seemed far away, and grew in distance with each passing moment. With all of the stress, anger and death that has passed me by, at that very moment, I had felt like all of my trouble was worth it.