Back aboard the ship, Leola was delighted to find that Francois, Isleald and Teekos had bought her a present during their stay in Raven Rock. It was a round shield made of a brilliant turquoise metal they called Stalhrim. Steel circled the blue metal and formed a design in the middle, and the young princess could barely contain her excitement.
"This is for me?" she asked as Isleald handed it to her, turning it over in her hands and admiring the handiwork.
"It is," said Francois with a grin, clapping a hand down on the Argonian's shoulder; apparently Isleald had a thing about people touching him. "We all chipped in a little – thought you could use something to remember us by."
"You three! It's beautiful," Leola said, her smile so wide it almost hurt her face. "Does this mean you'll teach me more fighting on the way home?"
"If that is your wish," Isleald said, smiling at her. "It should be easier now, with a shield to deflect blows."
For the next little while, that was all Isleald and Leola did. Francois handed out drinks to everyone else, and they spent their time aboard mingling about, admiring the sea and drinking. Isleald and Leola, however, found their own little corner and spent the entire time training. He taught her how to grip the shield so that she had no chance of dropping it, even with its heavy weight, and he taught her the best ways to use it for deflecting incoming blows. They sailed on home for hours and she spent the entirety of the time working away with Isleald, learning and training. When the ship finally laid anchor in Windhelm, she felt both exhausted and proud. She felt like a true warrior, and she knew that her father would be proud.
They made their way across the gangplank and to the docks. As had been the case back when they landed in Raven Rock, they were a little wobbly in the legs, but it was nothing they couldn't handle. The important thing was that they had the soul gem fragment they needed, and they were ready to return to the palace.
Leola bid farewell to the sailors, giving each of them a big hug before she left. She deeply appreciated all that they had done for her the entire time she'd been with them, from sailing them to Solstheim right up to Isleald taking the time to teach her some fighting skills. Once they had said their farewells, and an agreement had been made that the sailors would come to visit soon, they headed off into the streets of their city.
The group laughed and talked amongst themselves like any group of friends would. They discussed the unusual weather back in Solstheim, and how eerily beautiful the whole place had been. It had been almost a desert of ash, brought forth by the ancient volcanoes. None of them had actually travelled there before, so all marveled. Erith even suggested that they ought to go back there one day for a trip, just for the fun of it. Leola couldn't help but to wonder just how much time her mother had spent there. She'd been there several times, obviously, on a few occasions. She'd saved the world there, even – fought off some ancient dragon priest or something of the sort – so maybe she'd also taken pleasure trips there too? Or perhaps the place held too many bad memories for her mother to want to visit for anything other than duty.
Ulfric was waiting for them in the palace throne room when they arrived – not likely waiting, of course, but it did appear that way to the young princess. Excited to see her father again, she rushed across the room into his embrace.
"Were you successful?" he asked her when he pulled back, grinning down at her.
"I was!" she said proudly.
"And that's not the only thing she was successful at," said Erith with a grin as she approached.
"Oh?" Ulfric asked, raising one curious eyebrow. His blue eyes looked down at his daughter, clearly wondering what exactly Erith meant. "What else did you do? You were hardly gone long enough to have done much."
"Isleald taught her to fight," said Bottar with a bright grin of his own. "On the ship."
"Yes! See this shield?" Leola asked, turning so that he might see the magnificent blue and silver shield that was strapped to her back. It made sense that he'd not noticed it at first, she didn't blame him.
"He taught you to fight?" Ulfric asked, and it was his turn to grin. "And I trust that you did well? You're a Stormcloak, after all – fighting's in our blood."
"She was fantastic," said Shelur softly. "I'm certain that she'll make a fearsome warrior, even against the likes of my men."
"That is good to hear," Ulfric said. He turned his gaze towards Leola. "I am certain that you have made your mother very proud."
"I hope so," Leola said softly. There was nothing she wanted more than to make her mother proud, even after all that had transpired. "So what's the next step..?"
"Well…Aventus returned while you were gone," he said, and Leola's blue eyes widened.
"He did? Did he find Samuel?" she asked, and Ulfric's smile faded into something of a frown.
"Well, he – he wasn't exactly successful…" Ulfric said softly, glancing aside for a moment. "He's in one of the guest rooms if you'd like to see him."
"He's not injured, is he?" Leola asked, frowning.
"No! No, not to worry, he's fine," Ulfric said, shaking his head. "Just weary. He had a pretty rough trip, and – well, I'm sure he can tell you himself."
"Of course," Erith said softly. "Leola, we should go see him."
"Of course," Leola echoed back, nodding. She quickly took Erith's hand, bidding her father a quick farewell before following her lover in the direction of the guest rooms. It wasn't hard to find the one that housed Aventus, as no light peeked in from beneath the door – most of the empty rooms kept the curtains open to let light in, but Aventus did not. They both exchanged a glance before Leola neared the door, lifting one hand to knock gently.
"Come in," came Aventus's voice almost immediately.
The girls opened the door and stepped in. Aventus was sitting on his bed, with his head in his hands. As they entered, he lifted his head, and in an instant, he had risen to his feet and moved forward. He wrapped his arms around both of them in a tight embrace.
"Thank Sithis you're back," he breathed.
"Aventus, what happened?" asked Leola, tentatively hugging him back.
"Samuel has Minot," he said, pulling back from the hug. "Leola, we have to get her back - I know, Erith, I know you don't like her, but please. She's my dark sister. She has a little brother who depends on her. We have to save her."
"Slow down," Erith said, putting a hand on his arm. "Of course we're going to save Minot, but you have to tell us what happened."
Aventus took a deep breath, turning briefly away. "We managed to track Samuel down - it was difficult, but he had contacts in the Guild who knew where Runa was, and once we found her and the baby, we had no trouble finding him."
"Are Runa and her baby alright?" Leola asked, her blue eyes going wide.
"They're fine," Aventus said. "Samuel was keeping them at a safe house - a different one from the one he was staying in - and he didn't explain to them why. We explained to her that we wanted to put her under Dark Brotherhood protection from the Thieves Guild."
"That must have sounded strange to her," said Erith.
"It did, but she listened. As much as she loves and trusts Samuel, she also trusts me…I wasn't entirely honest with her, I told her that Samuel's life was in danger and that we were trying to find him, and that we wanted to keep her safe."
"Aventus!" Leola exclaimed, her eyes widening. "You should have told her the truth!"
"He's her husband, Leola, I couldn't just tell her the truth! It would destroy her! She told us where we could find him, and then we found the nearest travelling caravan - mercenaries, incidentally - to take her to safety. We paid their price, made sure she didn't have anything valuable on her, and then made sure they understood that the Dark Brotherhood would track down and eliminate each and every one of them," Aventus continued.
"So she's safe?" asked Erith.
"Yes," Aventus replied. "She told us where Samuel was, and - you're not going to like this - it turned out he was holed up in an abandoned house just East of here."
"Near Boethiah's shrine?" Erith asked, raising one eyebrow.
"Yes," he said.
"So he very well could have seen us when we were there," Leola said.
"He very well could have attacked us when we were there!" Erith exclaimed.
"It's a good thing he didn't," Aventus said. "We went there right away - you'd already been by, I knew because the ship was gone when we passed the docks, but Samuel was still there. He was expecting me - he wasn't expecting Minot, but he was definitely expecting me…"