Just a heads up you guys, I might not be able to get the next chapter out according to schedule. My laptop charger isn't working and it's slowly dying. If it dies before the new one that I ordered comes in, then we'll have to wait until the first week or two of June. Grr. Evil laptop charger.

Leola could feel her hands trembling as she opened the doors of Hjerim, walking in apprehensively with her two friends. Coming into her mother's old house always made her nervous, and every time, it was for a different reason. The first time she had passed through the doorway into the dusty, abandoned home, her heart had raced with excitement. The only thought that had run through her mind was that this had been her mother's home…her mother, whom she had loved dearly. As the days passed, though, she had come to fear the lovely home, with all its chilling secrets and the mysterious items littering the upper floor.

Leola jumped slightly as she felt something brush against her hand, but saw that it was just Erith, gently taking the blonde's hand in hers. Leola smiled a bit at Erith, who smiled back reassuringly.

"You hate it here, don't you?" asked the Breton, and Leola nodded.

"I suppose I do," she replied.

"We won't be any longer than we need to," Aventus said, moving forward and beginning up the stairs. The girls followed, hand-in-hand, and Erith dropped Leola's hand at the top of the stairs.

"Where do we start?" Leola asked, and Aventus gave a shrug of his shoulders.

"We should only do Daedric artifacts we know," he said softly, pausing to look around.

"Leola…"

Leola jumped slightly, whirling around. There was no one, though – no one but herself and her two friends.

"What was that?" Erith asked, looking at Leola. "Are you okay?"

"I could have sworn I heard something," Leola replied, a frown coming to her lips. "It must have been my imagination."

"Maybe we're heading in the right direction," Aventus said. "Anyways…so we know that we have the mace of Molag Bal here, that one is pretty straightforward…"

Aventus continued to speak, but his words seemed to go in one ear and out the other, fading into the din of the background. Leola's blue eyes fell upon a long, elegant black sword of craftsmanship unfamiliar to the Nord. It rested upon a weapon rack, and slowly, she moved towards it. It was as if she was in a trance, as if the blade was calling to her. She didn't notice her friends as they looked curiously at her, she didn't notice Aventus move towards her and ask what she was doing…all she could see was the blade.

The edges of her vision blurred, as if to make her focus even more on the mysterious black sword before her. Sword. The blade. Sleek, ebony. Whispers, whispers. Her mind raced. Come to me. Calling. Grab it. Grab the sword. The blade is calling. Heart is racing. Thump, thump. Trembling fingers. Whispers, more. More and more. Echoing, bouncing. Reverberations in her mind. Thump, thump. Whisper, whisper. Unspoken promises and untold secrets. Calling to her. Whispering. Whisper, whisper. Thump thump thump.

She outstretched her hands, but before they could come to rest on the sleek black weapon, Aventus caught them in his.

"Aventus!" Leola exclaimed. The trance was gone. The blurred vision went away almost instantly. She could once again hear their concerned voices speaking.

"Leola, what the hell are you doing?"

The blonde blinked her blue eyes a few times, slowly looking around the room. Aventus gently gripped her wrists, his brow furrowed, and Erith was anxiously biting her lip and pulling on a loose strand of brown hair.

"I…" Leola tried to speak, but no words would come. "I don't know."

"You scared us, Leola," said Aventus. "What's the deal with this sword?"

"I don't know," repeated Leola, hanging her head. "I just…it was like you two were gone. All I could see was the sword. It was as if it was calling to me."

Aventus turned his head, looking towards Erith as if to ask her opinion.

"Maybe we are going in the right direction," said Erith. "Maybe it wants to tell Leola what to do with it."

"Maybe this isn't such a good idea," said Aventus.

"It was your idea!" Erith replied, folding her arms over her chest. She then looked at Leola. "If you're comfortable with it, you should go ahead. We're both right here to stop you if it, I don't know, takes control of you or anything awful like that."

Leola looked back at Aventus, who hesitated a moment before dropping her wrists and taking a step back.

"We're both right here," he echoed, and Leola then turned her head towards the sword. It appeared to be made of ebony, sleek and elegant. It must have been from somewhere outside of Skyrim, as the long, narrow design of the curved blade was nothing she had ever seen or heard of before.

She nodded slightly before reaching out. She took the handle in her dominant hand and used her other hand to support the blade, sitting down and holding the sword in her hands. She closed her eyes, hoping that nothing would happen.

"Yes, my child…"

She was startled, but tried not to show it. The voice was in her own mind, echoing around as if bouncing off the very inside of her skull. She decided to think her words rather than speak them aloud, hoping that it would work well enough.

"Who are you?" she thought, silently praying that it was a spirit rather than a Daedra.

"I am Mephala…the Lady of Whispers…I understand that you now have my blade, and you wish to know what I want you to do with it…"

A foul word immediately came to Leola's mind, and she heard a slight laugh echoing in her head.

"Yes, that's correct. Can you tell me?" Leola asked in response, hoping that this would be an easy answer. She didn't want to keep a blade that would talk to her like this, especially not if the voice was that of a Daedric lord who could very well try to make her do bad things.

"My poor child…you lead such a life of betrayal…lied to by the one closest to you, made to clean up her messes and put together a puzzle you never knew existed…"

Leola's heart began to speed up. Mephala knew things, she had to. All Daedric lords were, in her eyes, essentially omniscient. They could watch mortals from anywhere, see any and all deeds performed.

"What can you tell me about my mother?" she asked nervously.

"By now, there's little I could tell you that you wouldn't already know, or be close to discovering. Your mother lied to you, Leola, for your entire life…she fed you stories and songs about a happy, loving family, but you were never that. And Ulfric, your father? It took him weeks to confess to you, Leola, and the only reason he did was because he was forced t. Would he have ever told you on his own? No, Leola. It is not the secrets of the dead that you should seek…but the secrets of the living, the people around you every day…"

Leola was shaking. Her blue eyes had fallen shut and she had drowned out the room around her. All she could hear were her own thoughts and Mephala's voice, whispering in her mind.

"What else is Ulfric hiding from me?" she asked nervously.

"Now, my darling, it's not only Ulfric….look around you. Your friends, the people who take care of you and try to help you muddle your way through this tangled web your mother wove…why don't you ask the Breton? Why was she crying in her room tonight? Ask the assassin. What's the real reason he can't say who performed the Black Sacrament on you? If you don't get the answers you need, Leola, their secrets are going to come back to haunt you…"

Leola's blue eyes snapped open and she turned her head to face Erith. There was a frown on the blonde's lips, while the brunette was looking intently over at her.

"Well?" asked Erith.

"Why were you crying in your room tonight when I came to the inn?" Leola asked, her voice cold.

Erith's brown eyes went wide at Leola's sudden question. "I…I don't want to talk about it, Leola," she answered, her own voice soft. She nervously averted her gaze from her friend, while Aventus watched curiously.

"Well, I want you to talk about it. Don't lie to me, Erith."

"Leola," said Aventus, but one icy glare from the blonde's pretty blue eyes shut him down.

"Leola, just drop it, please," said Erith. "I promise I'll tell you eventually, but not right now…" By now, tears were welling up in the Breton's eyes.

"Tell me or get out of my life," Leola whispered.

"Leola!" exclaimed Aventus, and as Leola glared his way, Erith began to cry.

"All my life, all people do is keep things from me," Leola said. "I want answers."

"I haven't kept anything from you, Leola," said Aventus, dropping down to one knee so he would be near to the ground, where she sat. "I promise."

"You're lying," she almost spat at him, glaring. "Who performed the Black Sacrament, Aventus? Who wants me dead?"

"I told you I don't know," Aventus cut in.

"You're lying!" Leola shouted, her grip tightening on the sword in her lap. She looked over at Erith again. "Stop crying and answer my damn question."

"Leave me alone," Erith whimpered, covering her face as she moved to the staircase. Leola went silent as she watched her friend leave, hurrying down the stairs and disappearing from sight. Both Aventus and Leola were quiet for several long moments after the front door of Hjerim slammed shut.

"I hope you're happy," Aventus muttered sarcastically.

"I didn't need her anyway," Leola replied. "I don't need anyone in my life who's just going to lie to me and keep secrets from me. Now, Aventus, are you going to answer my question? If not, you might as well just go after her."

Aventus closed his dark eyes and sighed, shifting into a sitting position.

"Leola," he said slowly. "Don't listen to the Daedra. Whoever you were talking to while you were holding that sword is lying to you. They're manipulating you."

"She was telling the truth!" Leola exclaimed, tears coming to her blue eyes. "She told me that all people do is lie and hide things from me. It's what my mother did, it's what my father did – it's what you and Erith are doing!"

"I don't know why Erith was crying, but she's not keeping it from you to be harmful – whatever it was, she's just not comfortable sharing it. When she is, when she does want someone to talk to about it, I know you're going to be the first person she goes to." Aventus shuffled over closer, putting a gentle hand on her shoulder. "And I swear on my life, Leola, that I'm not lying to you or keeping anything from you. I'm being as honest with you as I can – that's why I told you about the Black Sacrament, instead of just keeping it a secret. You deserved to know."

Leola stared nervously into Aventus's eyes, her vision starting to blur as more tears welled up. He outstretched one hand and brushed away a few loose droplets that had fallen from her eyes.

"I've made a mistake," Leola whispered, thinking of the slamming door as Erith had left. She looked down at the sword momentarily before dropping it, kicking it away from her. "Oh, Talos…I've made a mistake…"