A/N: I'm so sorry that this one is so late, I got so caught up in getting ready for the holidays that I completely forgot to post this one. But here it is, your holiday gift from me! Enjoy, and happy holidays!
Skuldafn Temple was eerie and foreboding. Odahviing dropped the pair of them off on what he told them was an ancient dragon burial mound, where a dragon had once been buried before Alduin had gone to work freeing his ancient allies. It seemed odd to Leola to be standing there, and she was quick to move off of the mound once they could.
Odahviing told them that he would return for them when Ulfric called, as he was pretty much the only way they'd get away from the temple. It was untouched and undisturbed since it was so blocked off, and he assured them both that they were in no danger. Any ancient evils and monsters that might have once haunted this place would surely have been dealt with by the Dragonborn all those years ago when she herself had ventured here.
Strapped across Leola's back was the staff that her mother had told Ulfric to use to open the portal. Neither she nor her father were certain how to go about using it, and for a moment, Leola wished that Erith had come with him instead of her. She wouldn't give up those hours soaring across the land for anything though. If her mother had asked Ulfric to use the staff, then it was because she knew that he could do it. Leola was determined to make her mother proud.
They ventured through the eerie temple, eyeing the remains strewn about. How many of these corpses had been felled by her mother? Had they attacked her? Had she been afraid, or had she trusted in her own abilities. Leola knew that she'd never get to ask her mother these kinds of questions, and she wished she could - still, though, she found it fun to imagine.
When they reached the end of the temple, they exited near what looked to be a staircase and a giant hole in the floor. The ceiling was open to nature here, letting them see the late afternoon sky above. They both approached slowly, walking up the stairs.
"That must be the portal," Ulfric said softly.
"It must be," Leola agreed, reaching the end of the platform atop the stairs and gazing down into the hole. How did they open the portal? She turned to face her father, who had dropped to one knee and begun inspecting something on the ground of the platform.
"It looks like the staff can be put in here," he said, running a finger around the edge of the hole. "I wonder if it works as some kind of mechanism - perhaps neither of us need magic to open this portal."
"You mean we only have to put the staff in the hole and the portal will open?" Leola asked, carefully removing the staff that was strapped to her back. She gripped it cautiously with both hands, approaching the base that her father was looking at.
"Yes, I think so," he said, rising to his feet again. "May I?" he asked, holding out one hand for the staff.
"Together," Leola responded, and a smile came to her father's lips.
"Very well," he replied with a nod. "Together."
Leola moved to stand beside him and the pair of them grasped the staff. Ulfric put his hands over his daughter's hands, smiling over at her. "On three?" Leola asked him softly.
"One," Ulfric responded.
"Two," Leola replied, her heart all but bursting with excitement about what might happen next.
"Three," they said in unison, and in one swift motion, they lowered the staff into the hole. It twisted neatly into place, and then they both let go and stepped back. The wind began to pick up, and they could see the first glimmers of magic beginning to arise both around the rim of the large hole in the ground and around the staff.
Leola felt a strange vibrating against her hip. She reached down and pulled out the wrapped soul gem, holding it up for a moment. It seemed to be throbbing, and as she unwrapped it, she could see its faint glow mirroring that of the portal.
"Father, look," Leola said softly.
"Set it down, see what happens," Ulfric said, putting a large hand atop his daughter's shoulder. Leola carefully knelt down, bringing the gem to her lips and placing a soft kiss on it before she set it down on the ground. She knew that this was her last chance to show her mother how much she loved and appreciated her, so she had to make the most of it. She stood up and backed away from the gem, and her father wrapped an arm around her shoulders gently. Leola watched in awe as the magic they'd seen from the staff began to create a swirling pool of magic in the giant hole that they'd suspected was the portal. Within moments, the wind picked up even more, howling as it whipped around them, and the portal was fully visible.
They could see the soul gem quivering, clearly seeking to release the soul trapped inside and send it through the portal. After a moment, they heard a voice.
"Leola."
Leola turned around, and her eyes went wide as she saw the ghostly apparition of her mother standing there, a warm smile on her lips as she gazed towards her daughter.
"M-mother?" she asked, her eyes wide with surprise. "Is that really you?"
"Yes, sweetheart, it is," she answered, smiling towards them. She was clad in a long, simple gown with a blouse underneath it, and her colourless hair hung in loose waves around her shoulders that both of them knew should be brown. This was a ghost, the image of her mother's soul before it returned to its place in Sovngarde.
"Mother," Leola stammered softly. "I… I don't know what to say."
"There is nothing to say, my darling," her mother responded, stepping forward. Leola also took a step forward, her father's arm falling from her shoulders. "Not for you, at least. I have much to say, and many apologies to make."
"No, mother, you don't have to apologize," Leola responded, smiling. "I understand."
"I still want to apologize," her mother replied softly. "I should have told you - even if I didn't tell you everything, I should have told you about my life before. You shouldn't have been in for the kind of shock you had when I died - that was my fault."
"It's alright," Leola said, tears coming to her blue eyes. "It was hard, but I'm a better person for it - better than I think I'd be if I had known about it all along. Can you imagine? I'd be such a brat, thinking I was better than everyone because my mother was the Dragonborn and my father was the High King," Leola added with a light laugh, and both of her parents laughed as well before their gazes shifted to one another, as if it was the first moment that her mother had realized that Ulfric was there.
"Ulfric," said Leola's mother in a soft voice, taking another step forward. As Ulfric moved towards her, Leola stepped away, smiling as she saw them take one another by the hands.
"Stormblade," Ulfric murmured, gazing deeply into her eyes.
"I'm so sorry for everything," she whispered, and this time there seemed to be tears in the ghost's eyes.
"No, no, don't apologize," Ulfric responded, smiling. "You've done more for me than anyone. You helped me to save my land, to reclaim my throne...you gave me a beautiful daughter, an heir… You have nothing to apologize to me for."
"I do," she replied softly. "Looking at you both now...seeing you here standing together, with your arm around your daughter… you should have been there to raise her, to see her grow up. You should have been in her life from the start, but I was selfish and afraid and you missed out on eighteen years of your child's life."
"That may be, but in the time since she's come back to my life, I've been on the grandest adventure ever, more great than anything I've done before. I wouldn't trade my time with her for anything, my love, and I'm happy with how things worked out."
Leola's mother was quiet, gazing briefly between the two. She seemed almost confused that both of them were at peace with all that had happened. It seemed that she'd been looking forward to making her apologies, and that now that neither of them needed them, she wasn't quite sure what to do with herself.
"Mother," said Leola softly. "We're both happy now. You did so much for both of us, and now we've done all we can to repay you. We want you to move on, to go to Sovngarde and be happy."
"Of course," her mother said in a soft voice. She let go of Ulfric's hands, and Leola could see the tears in her mother's eyes as she moved towards her daughter. She lifted her hands and cradled Leola's face for a moment, gazing deeply into Leola's blue eyes. "You are so beautiful, Leola," she said in a soft voice. "One day, the world will be yours." With that, she leaned in and placed a soft kiss on her daughter's forehead before lowering her hands. She turned to face the portal, approaching it slowly. "I can hear it calling to me," she said, though Leola was uncertain whether she spoke to them or to herself. "Last time, I was a mortal entering the land of the dead… this time, I am a lost and dead soul going home."
Leola could feel the tears in her eyes and she struggled to fight them away, not wanting to cry now. She wanted to savour this moment, to see it all unfold, to see her mother go to Sovngarde as she could. She watched in silence as her mother approached the portal.
"I love you both," her mother said suddenly, turning to face them one last time. "I will see you again one day."
"I love you too," Leola whispered, her tears too strong and her voice too choked to speak at any decent volume. She watched as her mother turned around again, facing the portal and gazing downwards. Then, with one step, the ghostly apparition dissolved into the portal, and the winds that howled around them almost seemed to pick up even more.
The portal remained, swirling forcefully about. She hoped that her mother had made it inside - it looked like she had, though, and the soul gem on the ground in front of them had gone dark. Her mother's soul was no longer inside. It was in Sovngarde, back where it belonged.
"We did it, father," Leola said softly, gazing into the whirlpool of violet magic. She was quiet for a moment, wondering why her father didn't respond. "Father?" she prompted, turning around. Her father was on his knees on the ground, clutching his heart and gasping as if for air. Leola's blue eyes went wide and she rushed to his side. "Father!" she gasped out.