The sun beat down warmly on Faiser as he sat in the rickety wooden rocking chair. The only sound that disturbed his rest was the wind blowing through the trees. He smiled as his mind drifted back, recalling the wind as he climbed the rigging on his mentor's ship. However, that smile did not last. as his mind drifted back even further…
*House-of-Secunda*
The salty hair stung his face as he rushed back and forth along the docks, looking for jobs to earn a few coins. His mother, a lady of negoationable affection, was sick again. Normally, they would just buy a potion of diease cure and she would be back at work the same night. However, two clients in a row had left her ridden with the diease that was the bane of sex workers. Potions were not cheap and they did not have the money to buy another, as his mother would not work and spread the fatal diease further.
He respected his mother for that, and had worked with little rest and no food, only some brackish water from a puddle, hoping to earn enough to save his mother. A week had passed since she started showing the symptoms again. It seemed as if her body was unwilling to resist this time, and she had lost all her strength and was bedridden. Their neighbor, a grandmotherly Breton woman, had looked her over and sighed.
"Fasier," The woman, known to the street kids as Aunite, had taken him aside, out of earshot of his mother, "Her condition is not good. How close are you to a potion?"
Faiser shook his head. "Nowhere near, Aunite. There is not a lot of work for a child unwilling to steal or apprentice one's self out. If I did take an apprenticeship, Mama would not be strong enough to go buy the potion."
Auntie nodded sourly. "Aye, nor should she be out of bed until she is better. I would go buy the potion, but only people looking for a cabin boy on Stros M'Kai are pirates, and they would rather just grab you then pay you."
She was right. Fasier had a friend, a young Dunmer boy named Thalvan, who had disappeared one day without a trace. The next time the pirate crew had wandered through, they removed his bloated corpse from the keel and tossed it at his parent's feet.
"What was his crime?" Thalvan's mother had wailed at the pirates.
"Crime? The young fool spilled our grog one too many times." The captain had slapped his fat belly and laughed.
Faiser had fantasized of killing that man that night. He imagined tearing out the man's heart and devouring it, while the full moon shone upon him.
Fasier shook himself from the fantasy, which was still very appealing to the boy. "What do I do, Auntie? Mama forbade me from becoming a thief to supplement our income. I don't want to disappoint Mama."
The elderly woman reached out and rubbed his head. "You're a good boy, Fasier. A good son to your ailing mother. I'll keep a lookout for something. Had I the coin I'd buy the potion now and let you both pay me off. I wish we had a temple here where a priest of a divine could rid your mother of a disease."
What went unsaid was that the temples would likely laugh at her, unless she was a Dibelleite courtesan, trained in the art of seduction at the goddess' temples. Those ladies would cast magic on their clients first, to make sure their tryst did not infect their lovely bodies.
"Go back to the docks and take whatever jobs you can find. I will visit my friends and see what we can scrap together. I will have to burn all my favors up. If we can just scrap enough septims, perhaps we can save your mother now, and she can repay when she is stronger."
Fasier had nodded and rushed along eagerly. However, at this point, he had been working for two days almost straight and his strength was waning. He only had ten septums to show for it. Meanwhile, the moon overhead had started to fill. Something within Fasier started to awaken.
He was currently aiding a ship's captain, a female Bosmer named Caras, in unloading cargo. Caras was the owner of the Secunda, a ship out of Valenwood. For some reason, the pirates gave both ship and the alluring elven captain a very wide berth.
"Why do they fear you, captain?" He had dared to ask as he finished his task.
She had winked at him. "Lad, pirates wouldn't take target my ship. Still, what's got you out working so close to a full moon?"
Fasier shrugged and told the nice captain his story. She pursed her lips. "No father to help?"
He shook his head. "She said my father could be any one of ten sailors she had the week I was conceived. She thinks he was a man who had put in from Murkmire though, just not completely sure."
The captain nodded. "Well, you're a nice enough lad. I'd offer you a position with me, but The Secunda has rules that even I cannot break. Here though, well earned."
She handed him ten septims and he felt hope surge in his chest. Perhaps his mother could be saved now. "Are you sure, this is well over the usual cost of such a job?"
She laughed and patted his head. "I'm sure, lad. Go and save your mother. I'll be here for another couple of days. Come and tell me about it afterward."
"Thank you, Captain!" Faiser said gratefully and rushed off to the potion shop.
The alchemist was still up, aware of the situation with Fasier's mother. The Redguard man smiled as Faiser rushed in. "You were able to make the coin?"
"Yes, sir!" Fasier put the twenty coins down on the counter.
The alchemist picked up the potion bottle and set it down before him. "Here you go, lad. I wish your mother a speedy recovery."
He had picked up the bottle with trembling fingers and it nearly slipped from his grasp. He managed to catch it though and transfer it to his belt pouch before rushing off home.
He arrived and pushed the door open to find Auntie, praying to Tu'whacca. He noticed the sheet had been pulled over his mother's face.
"She won't be able to breathe…" He started as he took a step forward.
"I know…" Came the teary reply from the elder Breton woman. He noticed an empty potion bottle next to the bed. "You got a potion too?" He asked in disbelief.
"Yes. She drank it. Then she smiled at me… and departed for the Far Shores. I'm so sorry, Fasier."
He dropped to his knees, his entire world reeling. "No… she can't be gone. The potion should rid her of the disease."
"It did." Auntie confirmed. "But her body was too weakened by this aggressive strain so soon after the last. She did not have the strength anymore."
He pounded the floor as tears, the first he had ever cried, stung his eyes like the salty air of the docks.
"It's not fair!" He roared at the sky. A voice spoke in his mind.
'Nothing is fair, my little one. The strong live and the weak are prey. This is the truth of nature. To deny this is to deny nature itself.'
The voice faded and the words stayed in Fasier's mind. He walked out of the house, Auntie not making a move to stop him. Perhaps she understood he needed to be alone.
Fasier would never forget what happened next. Bathed in the light of the full moons, he looked up and it was like a switch had been flipped inside him. He howled in pain as his body began to change uncontrollably. The last thing he called was his skin growing hard and his teeth elongation before he knew no more.
*House-of-Secunda*
Fasier set up, drenched in sweat. He growled in frustration. How did his mind keep wandering back to that fateful night?
"Is everything alright, Papa?" A soft voice asked.
He glanced over to see Aurada, one of his adopted shifter daughters. Aurada had been with them for a year now and she had grown a bit taller than she had been whem she arrived. Thanks to her mostly bare legs, he could still see the faint white scars of the bite mark on her thigh where Lorelyn had infected her with Werewolf Lycanthroupy.
The girl had long curly red hair and bright green eyes. She was dressed in scant leather, in the style of Bosmeri hunters. She had a long knife across the small of her back and a bow and quiver of arrows on her shoulder.
"I'm good, Aurada." Fasier smiled up at his charge. "Did you and Lorelyn manage to catch anything?"
The girl put down her bow and quiver and sat in the chair next to him. "Aye. It's Lorelyn's turn to clean it. She'll be back soon. Are you sure you're OK, Papa? You growled pretty loudly when you woke from your nap."
He chuckled as he reached over and tussled her hair. "No worries. My mind was just wandering back to my own childhood. The first transformation, it haunts me sometimes. If the Captain had not been there to stop me, well I could have hunted the people I grew up near. I am grateful to her for that."
Aurada smiled fondly. "I recall a certain Werecrocodile doing the same for Lorelyn, when she was hunting me. I heard some travelers talk about Karma once. I'm inclined to believe in it."
Fasier nodded. "In the lands of Hammerfell, we talk about the Wheel. I suspect it's similar enough. Our blessing can be a curse, to those who cannot control it or those who succumb to the beast. I hope when this place is finished, all of our people will have a place to rest and learn that control, as long as they do no harm to the residents here."
It was a fact that Fasier had been trading meat and skins to acquire silver weaponry. Just in case any would be guests turned into enemies.
"I hope that is not the case." Aurada nestled back in her chair and rocked a little. "But I cannot deny the power I feel when I shift. I could understand some getting lost to it."
He nodded in understanding and rose. The building of the House, which he had been shown in a vision from Hiricine, was still unfinsihed. They had built a two room building first, where he and the girls slept. It would be converted later into storage. The main building had the main hall done, but the rooms were still under construction.
"We should see if we can finish the rooms for you and Lorelyn before the week is out." He remarked.
Aurada clicked her tongue. "We talked about this! You should get your room first. We can share the outbuilding for a little longer."
He chuckled. "I would prefer if my girls got their rooms first. Then we can do Priscilla's room and then mine. I appreciate your willingness to share space for now, but growing girls need their own rooms."
Aurada pouted at him and he could not stop laughing. "Why are you making Priscilla's room a priority? It's not like she stays here often."
"Because she could suplex me. Reason enough to make sure she doesn't get squeezed in with someone else."
He got up and headed towards the building. Might as well get in some work while the sun was still up. Besides, he didn't want to see what part of his memory would surface next.
A/N: Welcome to the first chapter of the House of Secunda Saga: Dark Wings. Fasier is our main character as we set off in the world of Tamerial once more. I recommend reading Moonlit Chase if you have not already, it is the beginning of this series. Also, consider reading the Dufrey Diaries. Events in that series will be canon in this one. See you next time.