4E 182, 12th of First Seed...

Gwen woke with a start to icy water splashing in her face. She shook her head, the rattling of chains reminding her of where she was.

"Good, you're awake."

Gwen looked up, seeing Gyrnian Thramour- the Thalmor who was tasked with interrogating her.

"Shall we pick up where we left off?" Gyrnian asked, sneering at her.

Gwen remained silent, determined not to give in.

"Ah, still refuse to talk?" Gyrnian sat at his desk. "We can fix that." He gestured for the guard to begin, sitting back in his chair and watching with sick pleasure as the guard took his whip to Gwen.

Gwen cried out in pain with each strike, squeezing her eyes shut to try and block it out. But the guards had dipped their weapons in liquid silver, having done their homework, and the silver's poison slowly seeped into her bloodstream.

"Oh, don't worry, the silver won't kill you." Gyrnian said, his eyes gleaming with his joy at her pain. "It's just enough to ensure that you don't forget who's in charge."

Gwen glared at him, wanting to shift into her beast form and tear him to shreds. But the poison was seeping into her wounds, causing her more pain than she had ever felt before.

Beirand sat with Thadis off to the side of their camp, having stopped to rest and group together with the Stormcloaks at the nearest camp in Whiterun Hold. While Ulfric and Galmar discussed the situation with the senior officers, one of the soldiers came up to Beirand.

"You look like you've had one hell of a few days."

Beirand looked at him, recognizing him. "You're Ralof."

Ralof nodded. "Good to see you again, Beirand." He sat next to him and offered him a mug of ale. "You look like you could use this."

Beirand took the mug, thanking him. "I really fucked up, Ralof..."

"No, you didn't. Not nearly as bad as Ulfric might have you believe." Ralof looked at him. "You did as Gwen asked you to, and now you're doing more than she could expect of you." He knew the story of what happened, knew that Gwen had asked him to stay home and look after their home. "You couldn't have known this would happen. None of us could." He looked back at the tent where Ulfric was. "You know he loves her, right?"

Beirand nodded. "And she loves him. I could tell from the way she talked about him. Even without knowing his name, I knew he was the one she spoke of."

"They haven't told each other, yet." Ralof scratched Thadis' ears as he came up to him. "But that's why Ulfric is so upset, why he's fighting so hard to get her back."

"Just like when she was taken by bandits."

"Haha, she told you about that?" Ralof chuckled. "She was so embarrassed when she told me that story. She thought she could handle it all on her own, but when Ulfric came for her she knew she needed to depend on other every once in a while." He looked at Beirand, seeing his brow still deeply furrowed. "Don't worry, Gwen's a strong girl. She'll pull through this. And if I know her, she'll find a way to escape and come home all on her own."

"Beirand."

Beirand and Ralof looked up to see that Ulfric had come over. Ralof excused himself, leaving Beirand and Ulfric alone. Beirand stood, bowing to him.

"Yes, my lord?"

"Walk with me." Ulfric led Beirand a bit down the road out of camp, stopping at the very edge. "I feel as though I was too harsh with you."

Beirand looked at him, remaining silent.

"I would like to apologize to you for that." Ulfric looked at him. "You did your duty by coming to me."

"But I failed in my duties, my lord."

"How old are you? Nineteen? Twenty?"

"I'll be twenty in a few months, my lord."

"You're still young, very new to the position of Housecarl, are you not?"

"Y-Yes, my lord. It was a great honour when Jarl Igmund chose me to be Thane Gwen's housecarl."

"Then you should not be so hard on yourself." Ulfric looked out into the night. "And neither should I."

They stood there, silent for a while before Beirand spoke.

"My lord, may I ask you something?" He waited, then when Ulfric nodded, he continued, "Why did you stop writing to her?"

Ulfric sighed. "Because I was afraid this would happen."

"She hoped every day for a letter from you. She worried so much she would ask her parents if you were doing well."

"I know... it pained me not to write... even more so when she continued to send letters..."

Beirand looked at him, seeing the sadness of a man in love etched all over his face. "She was hurt that you stopped writing to her, but it never changed the fact that she loves you."

Ulfric looked at him at that.

"Even if she didn't say aloud, you could tell in her voice any time she spoke of you."

Ulfric looked away, his heart heavy. "I never meant to hurt her... I only wanted to protect her..."

Beirand sighed. "As did I... I should have been there to stop them from taking her..."

"You couldn't have, even if you had wanted to. Gwen has always been headstrong like that." Ulfric managed a smile at that. "I used to watch her walk through the streets at night, wondering what she was thinking about. I even thought about asking to join her a few times, but somehow I knew that she needed to be alone."

"I'm sorry, my lord..."

"It's not your fault, nor has it ever been or will be your fault." Ulfric looked at him. "Let's just get her back and make those knife-eared, golden skinned, sadistic fucks pay."