The Dark Brotherhood Chronicle: Cyrodill, Pt 5 3/3

Arquen found it surprisingly difficult to match his pace, soon discovering that not even her long legs were capable enough to do so, drifting over the cobblestone road through the fog. Within moments, it became clear to her that he was not leading her to the gates of the city, bound for the stables and then the road, as their fellow Speakers would have already done, but deeper into the the heart of the misty city of Bravil. In spite of their departure from the meeting, he still did not open his mouth to speak... and while the urge to do so herself came to her several times as they walked further on, she forced herself not to, knowing the time to do so would present it's self inevitably. They passed the rows of run down, interconnected houses and shops, miraculously meeting no guards on their way, and immediately, Arquen knew what Lucien had on his mind, the destination he was bound for before they were to slip out of the confines of the city.
The evening blanket of fog, thick enough to dispel the light from the shimmering moons above, was obstructive to each of them, the wistful desire coming to Arquen that she had brought a torch along, yet for how many times this journey had been made, the course of each step was etched into their respective minds as surely as their Matron's words. He did not slow for even an instant as he made his way forward, and before long, they both had reached it, a spot they respectively had visited many times before, be it together or separate, but never as five. The tall grey marble statue of the Lucky Old Lady standing upon her stone platform, just east of Bravil's towering Chapel beyond Her, loomed before them down the path in the fog, Her icy presence cutting through even the warmth enveloping them each that evening. A great many people visited Her by day, be it travellers, thieves, warriors before a battle or residents, praying upon Her for the luck She kindly provided, if only for a time... and yet only five knew the truth that not the guards, not the Count, not even those who had always lived there knew, the truth of Who lay beneath the city, utilizing the ageing marble figurine as a masterful ventriloquist might a puppet.

Certainly, nothing in it's tender and kindly mannered design could have tipped off the average traveller, as was intended when it had been chosen and constructed by the Black Hand long ago; a tall, kind faced, doting old woman in a long, solid gown, a hand clutching her breast as if feeling the steady heartbeat within, her other extended down lovingly to a trio of tiny naked children, babies, each knelt on a respective pedestal around her, paying reverence to the grand woman before them, their diminutive hands reaching for the hem of her dress, as if pleading to be picked up and cradled. Closer they moved over the street to the statue, the Lucky Old Lady growing taller with each step, and Lucien at last slowed his pace as he neared the platform, Arquen following suit.

As Lucien stepped slowly on to it, Arquen hung back and watched them tentatively, just off the platform, behind him. She knew better then to join him in such a private affair, a consultation with the Mother, and one she knew he needed to make alone... just as she had done the last time she had been in Bravil. The musty wind of the evening continued to swirl around them, and Arquen breathed it in deeply, the wind causing her to blink within the confines of her hood, and then outright close them when it picked up and became stronger. When she opened them again, blinking quickly against the watering forming in each, she watched as Lucien, now standing directly before the Lucky Old Lady, peering up into Her kindly face, reached into one of the deep pockets of his robes, and produced what she thought to be a mere piece of parchment for a moment... until, her heart expanding within her chest, she saw the ends of what it enveloped protectively poking from the end.

The beautiful pedals of two roses appeared to her, the prevalent one a bloody red rose, was visible even in the darkness of the mist, and her eyes parted as he unwrapped the parchment, tucking it away. The long green stem contrasted the bloody shade of the peddles, covered in numerous thorns, as well as the second rose, one a dark as his own robes. Neither had been squished at any point in their journey to the city, rather, it was as though they had just been freshly plucked. Taking the red rose into his right hand, he raised it up to the outstretched hand of the Lucky Old Lady, and enclosed the flower, the tribute, as well as his own hand, into Hers, holding and caressing the stone fingertips tenderly and peering up into those unblinking, gentle eyes. With his other hand, he brought the black rose to the hand clutching her breast, and slipped it's stem through her fingers so she held it to herself.

A strengthening shadow amongst others seemed to stir after a time across his features, Arquen noted... yet not one of grimness, or bitterness at the weight of the looming Purification he was to see through, but a shadow of genuine, loving emotion, the likes of which she had seen him display freely in her own presence, and for a moment, in spite of the midnight hood and robes, and a past and life she was quite familiar with, he truly seemed a youth again more then ever, hardly different from the stone children surrounding the Lady. His gloved hand tightened against Her own one of stone, and several of the jagged thorns sank into and through the material deeply, droplets of his blood dribbling from the holes in the enchanted material and spilling between them, staining Her palm, and his grip loosened, the enchanted material of the robes already resealing the tiny holes in his glove. As she watched on, herself gazing upon the Imperial with every ounce of the love she felt for him, the Father and the Mother, he silently spoke his peace to what any passerby would believe to be the statue alone.

Sweet Mother... Sweet Mother. I come to You now, as unworthy of Your presence as ever, these roses and my very blood a miniscule offering, an infinitesimal bit of the many thanks You deserve. No task I have ever performed, no individual I have ever killed in Your name and no distance I have travelled in this world has been enough to earn this right... yet You give it to me, You give it to me without a second thought... and I thank You for that.

Long ago, I accepted that I would never hear Your voice... would never hear the vocalic beauty of Your unrivalled wisdom first hand, as every Listener has been blessed to hear. I ascended the ranks one by one, and when accepted into the Black Hand as I was, it was as one who dispenses Your word... and no higher did I climb, nor truly want to. It was not that I never wished to be the Listener, never wished to actually hear You, not at all, my Mother... for all do desire that. It was that this position You saw fit to bless me with, was surely and truly enough for me... was perfect for me in every regard, and fitted together with my strengths, my characteristics, and every other part of me like the pieces of an elaborate puzzle. I speak... the Dark Family's listen. Family's you have tasked each of us with uniting, and overseeing, and I think You saw this in me to it's innermost depths as few ever have. I need not hear Your voice to know that You listen to me, as You always have, and watch over me with Your infinite capacity to love all things spawned of Darkness.

These past months... my brothers, as You have seen, have been dragging their boots with this situation... they have succumbed to ignorance... ignorance I would never before have believed them capable of, perhaps even inner despair, the worst of which being the case of Ungolim, my Listener. I wish it had not necessary to speak to them as I did... to be so very cold to them, those who have been a nearly constant source of happiness, my brethren of the Black Hand... but they made it so no alternative was any longer possible, pushing even my own restraints. I needed to take charge, if only for that instant, and try to set them right again. I understand each of their respective problems, problems that, when brought together, well, no other outcome could possibly have been likely to occur. They outnumbered us. Arquen and I, and our Silencers alone have been making the required effort... but we alone were never enough, it needed to be all Five or equate to none at all, and my own Silencer has paid the price for their shortsightedness, as the other children, the victims of the Brotherhood's Traitor have... and now as the Family I love so very much must as well.

Mother... You ask this thing of me. You ask this great and terrible thing, a task I have never been given until this very night, a weight greater men and women then I have seen through century's ago, and I meant what I said in that meeting, my eternal pledged loyalty and service to You and the Father... you and the Father above any individual I have brought to us at Your word... or even the one unwavering immortal soul who helped me grow as an individual as he did, passing along the beauty of himself and his knowledge. You ask this thing, this sanitation, and it shall be done... I will perform it with every bit of my skills, and without any hesitation or mercy. All within the Sanctuary shall perish, save the one agreed upon to be spared.

I love You.

I have always loved You with everything within myself.

You gave me everything, Mother... You gave us all that much. You gave me the love of a Family that I needed in my darkest hours, the love and guidance of friends, the High Elf with every bit of her heart of Darkness who watches us now and has followed me in this from the start, a reason to exist, a cause to die for, a duty and the means to perform that duty. I have savoured each and every moment of my time in Your service across the years, be it pleasures or pains, the plethora of memory's and experiences with others I have met, each of these You endowed me with in my travels, travels You yourself made possible, and I will carry them with me to the end and beyond. If anything You have given me is meant to be taken away from me, I would have no other, not this Traitor, not any enemy I have ever made, do such a thing then You, the one you gave me all this. You gave me this life, and it is You who can and must take it away whenever such a thing is your wish, and I will not cling greedily to it for my own sake, but for the continued service of you.

With this Purification... I hope that this Traitor's presence is destroyed... the Brotherhood cleansed and revitalized, I pray for this above all else... I wish no further unnecessary deaths within the Family's as the random murders and Burnings... and yet, I know already that not one of the Cheydinhal Family is guilty of this sin.

I make to You this confession... if I carry in myself any one fear at this time... it is of what they shall think of me when they reach the Void... I they have loved and trusted, who has in his duty, betrayed them. It makes no difference now, though, and I know this. Regardless of whether this Purification is the end of our test, the end of our troubles, I will remain as vigilant as I ever have been in your name against any threat to the sanctity of Your Family and mine, and I ask that the Dread Father show His great mercy upon my Family, and take this show of fealty, of sacrifice, into His loving arms, just as surely as the Traitor will be cast into a pit of eternal torment and damnation for their wronging of You, their wronging of each of us who walk in His shadow for all time.

I thank You for Your time... for Your listening, Your understanding of me no other is capable of, and I continue now, as ever, in Your service... I will return again as soon as possible, and bring You a greater tribute then this.

Good Night, Sweet Mother, and may Your ancient slumber remain unmarred by our mortal inadequacies.

Lucien continued to peer up into Her soothing eyes, enraptured, hand in hand, for quite some time amongst the shifting layers of fog, and knew truly then what Arquen had spoken of some time before, of a rare moment, one capable only in Her presence, where one seemed to think of nothing at all, the burden, although most certainly remaining, seemingly alleviated it's self somewhere in the depths of his mind. The length of that time in which he remained, he could not determine, but gradually, his task settled back into him... and he knew he must leave. His hand retracted slowly, reluctantly, from Her's, the rose remaining intertwined in Her fingers, it's red, bound in his blood, bringing the only colour prevalent amongst her stone form, like that of a severed heart offered to each of her children huddled below her, as surely as she clutched the Black rose gratefully to herself. At last, he drew back from her a single involuntary step, the shadow of emotions fading away into nothingness as the cold expressionlessness overtook his features once more. He turned calmly, peering out from the platform, to the tall, tentative Elf close at hand, and then out into the swirling mist obscuring the dank city of Bravil, and he moved then, off the platform, past Arquen, and continuing on now as his fellow Speakers already had.

Arquen made to follow after him again, her gaze flickering one last time to the Lady and to the offerings, and she bowed her head to the Mother in thanks, curtseying with the hem of her long robe, before again striding after Lucien before he could disappear on his own into the mist, leaving their Sovereign to Her rest.

The hooded Imperial led Arquen closer to the city gates, until the unmistakable sight of lit torches, courtesy of the guards, shone through the fog, and simultaneously, the pair cast an aura of invisibility about themselves, passing the patrols of armoured men chatting to one another. The moment they arrived at one of the gates briefly unmanned, the pair of Speakers passed through them, resealing it behind themselves, and proceeded onwards out of the city, back towards the Green Road. The great trees of the forest beyond the city poked out the top of the mist, towering over them each as they neared. Arquen stopped on their way to the road, entering the stables where she and her Khajiit and Dunmer brothers each had left their steeds, to find her own now very much alone. Lucien did not wait for her, as before, yet the invisibility surrounding him broke when her own had, and he did not move any quicker as he took to the Green Road on foot, passing away from the City. By the time Arquen had led her lovely brown horse from the stables and mounted it, he was some way down the path, his outline only barely visible, and quickly, she spurred her steed, which issued a whinny, and raced down after the Imperial Speaker, catching up with him with ease, and the horse was forced to trot alongside him slowly.

At last, rounding bend after bend in the road, the city of Bravil disappeared into the mist, and Lucien paused for the first time, long only enough to summon Shadowmere unto the Nirn. After mounting his otherworldly steed of Darkness, Lucien sped on up the Green Road for Cheydinhal, and while it soon became all but impossible for her own very much natural horse to keep pace with the opposite one he utilized, she was able to keep him in sight as they travelled at all times. Long into the night they travelled along the countryside, the mist gradually dying down the further they went, past the Lorious River and along the Nibenay Valley... until at last, they reached the coast near the Imperial City, it's incomparable Aeleid architecture dwarfing what had been in Bravil, as it did all other city's. Reaching the coast... they each came upon an intersection in the road, and Arquen eventually slowed, where her silent companion still did not. To the east, the Green Road would continue for a time, taking whoever travelled it towards the Blue Road, and by extension, Cheydinhal... it was this the Imperial took at once while Arquen hung back for a moment, her eyes travelling to the West... to the Gold Road, that would take her on the Chorrol, to her home.

The magnificent Shadowmere passed on down the Green Road, retreating from her eyes, and her desire to see her Family again was overridden by her desire to remain with him, to hear him, perhaps, and hopefully, to comfort him, should he require as much. He had done more then this for her... and her love of him, a single individual, won out over the many others.

Spurring her steed into movement again, she raced after Lucien, galloping along the Green Road, along the Imperial City coast, and towards Cheydinhal. He seemed without looking at her aware of her continued presence far behind him, and gradually he slowed to accommodate her. When they reached at last the next bend to the Blue Road, only a few hours of the night remaining, dawn almost threatened to peak over the horizon, and he at last stopped them, leading them off the pathway, and deep into the forests around the Blue and Green roads. As silently as ever, they made camp, Arquen laying down their separate sleeping rolls and the supplies they had brought out amongst the forest floor as he led their steeds together deeper into the forest, securing their reigns to a tree, yet leaving them enough room to graze together. When he returned, moving past her as she worked, he had gathered up a great bundle of sticks and plants, laying them as one near their bedding's and encircling it with stones, before at last kneeling before it, and laying a gloved hand upon the bundle purposefully. A rush of leaping golden and orange flames encircled his hand, and spread like a liquid out over the wood, and he retracted the hand as the glow of the fire swelled like a beacon over that section of the forest, each of their shadows, like those of the trees, dancing about themselves, and the fire at his fingertips faded... and he followed this magic with a series of protective spells around the perimeter of their camp.

By now, Arquen had just about finished her own task, but watched from the corner of her eye as his shadow moved away from the fire and back towards the bank at the edge of the forest, and finding a fallen, gradually rotting tree, he sat himself upon it, silhouetted in the fire, looking out of the forest, out over the roads and to the coast of the Imperial City beyond, his manner as contemplative as before, betraying nothing through exterior of what he thought or felt. Refocusing upon her task, Arquen finished up, rising to her feet, and casting her eyes to where he resided, slowly pacing away from the roar and warmth of the crackling fire, and joining him out in the cold, settling down upon the fallen trunk at his side, and following his own gaze out over the Imperial City. It occurred to her, as minutes ticked away, that there would be no finer time to break the silence, now that they were encamped, and that he was at last motionless. With difficulty, she thrust out the hesitance threatening to overtake her voice, yet it remained quiet.

"Lucien... I cannot begin to imagine what it is you are feeling now, for even after all this time I have never had to shoulder the burden you do", Arquen admitted to him solemnly, taking again his hand, the one he had pierced for their Mother, into each of hers, caressing it just as leasurly and tenderly as he had the Mothers. At last, his own slowly began to do the same to hers. She watched his contrastingly unresponsive face from the corners of her perception, while simultaneously maintaining her gaze upon the sprawling landscape of Cyrodiil.
"But I know pain... we all know it, we know it because it is apart of ourselves, it is what has brought us this far. You and I together have overcome our pain, for the most part, but we carry it's shadow as a reminder of who and what we are, how changed we are. I know that in my most agonized times, you have been here to comfort me, to hear me... and to love me, in the way I need to be loved, in the way I need to feel, regardless of the extent of my own ways... you do not judge, nor wrinkle your nose, but you accept and you embrace that which is not yourself. I return this to you... and I am here for you, as ever, in the ways you are to me. What is it that you feel? Do you... wish to discuss this?"

"What would have me say, dearest sister?", Lucien's low, collected voice returned at once to her momentary surprise, as if emerging from the chasms of reverie. His dark eyes glittered in the ghostly and crimson light of the moons still spreading out over the calm waters of the coast, around the Imperial Sewers, and it was the rusty entrance to this he watched. "That I regret what I am to do? That it sickens or disturbs me in some way? You know me as well as yourself, Arquen. I am about to destroy the greatest Dark Family I have ever known, one I have loved and united, and while I could not even truly save the youngest child there, for I already knew I could spare but one... ultimately, it does not matter, for it all comes back to the same thing. I am already at peace with it all, and resolved to carry it out to the extent of my ability's in our Parents name. My 'regret' extends only to the necessity of my actions. That it must be brought about by the actions of an interloper. Yet I know what must be done, and it will be done.".

"It cannot be that simple, Lucien... you are right, I do know you... and I know what each of them means to you... regardless of the paradise or reward that awaits each of them", Arquen contradicted him quietly, yet rather firmly, her grip upon him tightening, forcing him to look away from the valley stretching before them and upon her.
"I speak not a blasphemy of our Parents name when I say this... I merely speak a living truth for all beings that feel as we do. They go to the Void, yes, they go to eternal infinity, to serve at His right hand... yes, but that it not what I am speaking of. What I am saying, is that each of these remarkable individuals, these mortals and an immortal, who must die, are collective fragments of yourself, and to destroy them, these seven pieces, you are doing that of yourself, whether you feel it or not. It would be no different then if I had to take a metaphorical or literal torch to my own Sanctuary, the pain of such an irrevocable action would be present regardless of whether or not it is being performed to appease our Parents. They know our pain better then even we, and our pain is part of what they see in us, what makes us such indispensable children of Darkness."

Lucien studied the older woman's earnest features for the briefest of moments with all the tenderness of the lover he was, and with his free hand, he brought it gently upon her face, caressing the delicate paling gold of her smooth cheek, the darkness within his eyes somehow the collage of resolve yet understanding of her words, familiarity of her intent, and gratitude, yet also something reapproving in his manner.

"You glimpse my cold meticulousness, my pragmatism, and misunderstand what I meant at my very depths, dearest sister... but you do so in a way that warms me, even now", He replied evenly as she savoured his loving touch, her eyelids nearly closing entirely with pleasure as she listened almost hazily, yet hung to every word simultaneously.

"I have never claimed it to be simple... nothing worth having or doing in this world is simple. I do feel what I am prepared to do... regardless of what it is or when I do it, I always feel something, and I do not try to trick myself by telling myself otherwise, conscience or no conscience. I have not in decades done as much. I am to dismember and tear apart my own Family, yes, at the will of Sithis and the Night Mother, yes, due to the Traitors actions, again, yes... but there has never been, nor after this deed has been performed by both I and my Assassin will there be, a moment in which I do not see their faces, hear their voices, even the ones I have known already recently gone or long gone. I have said it twice now... first to Ungolim, secondly to the Night Mother, and now I say it to you: the Family residing within the Cheydinhal Sanctuary is not guilty of anything, it is I who am guilty of this matter, tearing them asunder. I could not convince Ungolim, and now they pay for my own form of failure, regardless of Ungolim's own."

"While they do go to the Void, and will be reunited there, amongst the other great brothers and sisters they will meet, I speak of their physical time upon this realm. Vicente a great many times recalled his entire history to me with perfect clarity... as he does any attentive listener, and while I hold not his Dark Gift, nor have I lived as long as you or he, I do as well, for the most part, remember my own within the Brotherhood now and before. I remember the first time I met Vicente as a young man, his elegance, his complete understanding of me and what I felt, the frequency with which I conferred with him be it over my contracts or my own journeys and life, the lessons he passed along to me that no other has been able to do, the love and the care for my well being that has never wavered since that time. He paid and pays attention to me as you say that I do to you... with an open mind that thirsts more for knowledge then even the beauty and thrill of blood... and now I must wrong him, I must rip away the century's that developed him and made him the great being of the night that he is, and carry that with me... I must, in some regards, prey upon him as he does his mortal victims."

"Without mercy. Without compassion. As the same will be done to the others. As the same must be done to them".

"To Ocheeva and Teinaava, the brother and sisters I have known since they were but hatchlings, born unto the Nirn under the sign of The Shadow, and when the task befell me to train them in Blackmarsh in the ways of the Shadowscale, to pass along the very knowledge I had gleaned from both myself and Vicente, not merely techniques of killing, cunning or sneaking, but of the life that awaited them and it's many lessons, lessons they took to heart as my children. Training them... I carried out the blessings of our Night Mother, inducting two beautiful individuals of darkness, into our ranks. They have sought always to earn my approval, not realizing that it was never necessary. They have never moved in inch in the direction of disappointing me. Now I likely do as much to them."

"To Telaendril, who of all my contracts was the only person ever to elude me... to return vengeance upon the taker of her own contract, her father. Telaendril whose ambition has, since arriving to our Sanctuary, taking my offer as noone has ever refused me, long been a mirror to my own in my youth. Seeking not only to perform the will of Sithis, the will of the Night Mother, but to better herself in every regard. Were the Purification unnecessary, I could still imagine her rising onward and sitting upon the Black Hand one day in the future as I do now, be it Speaker or Listener, and now this possible achievement she has long sought cannot be realized."

"There is Mraaj Dar then... who has long reminded me of Uvani in many regards, both volatile, each carrying a great anger that can scarcely be managed, an anger of such passion that it seems to fuel them almost entirely. While I say this of Mraaj Dar, it is not said derisively so... I have glimpsed in him, like Uvani, what lies beneath his anger... the true self gradually unveiling it's self, a self that, once used to one he deems an outsider, used to their presence, when they have gained his respect, he loves them to such a degree that he cannot bring himself to show it overtly as you and I might with ease. While so very overt in anger... it is the subtly lurking beneath these complicated confines that is his beauty, his innermost strength... to say nothing of his magical ability's, which are perhaps greater then my own, and he is younger then I... with the proper time, he could have been the greatest of all magic users amongst the Brotherhood."

"Then there is Gogron... Gogron whose passion and zest for life is all but overwhelming. I have not met one as optimistic as that Orc is, it is his admittedly childlike manner and delight, when not ripping his contracts to messy, albeit, amusing pieces, despite his physical appearance and brutish nature, that has kept my Family going in even the most difficult times, and has rejuvenated even I... when not trying to squash me like a bug in his embrace, unintentionally of course. He has found in Telaendril the woman, Elf that is to say, my apologies again, that I have found in you. That of a lover who understands particularly unique workings in him that no other can... and now, I part them from the physical world, to rejoin together in the Void."

"All these remarkable individuals... they have led now to this final one... this beautiful young woman Ungolim could not spare. Antoinetta Marie. If you had but seen her through my own eyes on the particular night I came to her with my offer, Arquen, you would know entirely what I am saying... though to be sure, you have had family members similar to her, and you have met her, have seen her nature, you know what she is like and the generality I am referring to. To see her in that alleyway after the hand life had dealt her... and to be there with my own to offer her, something changed in her tear stained eyes in that moment, as if my life flitted into her, that she drew it from me, and I saw my own worth to the Family reflected in the gratitude of those eyes, and her manner ever since that night towards me. I gave her something very great and unlike anything she has ever known any time prior, and now, before she has barely sipped from her mortal cup, from the darkness she exudes so wonderfully, she dies a young woman, a child, one who, despite joining us, in bringing her tenderness to us, to us all, from her... attempts, to cook better then Vicente and Gogron, to her gossip spreading, despite any of this, she leaves behind a wealth of experiences she could not undertake. I could have taught her more, and I did not. Now, she dies nearly a Maria did too... with too much left not undertaken."

"Destroyed youth. There are truly few things crueler in this world".

"I bear the weight of this Purification, as I have said, and will continue to do so... I do not want or need forgiveness... perhaps they will understand the reasons for which I did this upon the day I see them again in the Void however long or short down the road that may prove, perhaps they will not... but what I know is this of the family I brought together: they are truly perfect... they are the standard by which all future Family's must be born and measured, the standard of which all those Family's that succeed them must strive to follow. When this is done, this generations Cheydinhal Family having taught others to come, I will be truly satisfied... if this is the legacy I leave behind, I will part from this world knowing then that I have succeeded as a Speaker, in making the Brotherhood a greater empire and Dark Family of the night. It would be a greater thing to be known for then my hunt of the Traitor, or any other event I have been involved in preceding this one. And I hope... I hope so very much, the Night Mother will be satisfied with my service... for She and the Father are what truly matters. I will never forget my family... they have honoured me well, as true brothers and sisters... but the hunt goes on".

Slowly, gradually, he stopped stroking her face over the course of his explanation, yet kept his hand intertwined down at his side with hers, and again, he peered out over the coast, very little having changed in his calm, introspective gaze and manner. He was resolved, and had been from the start... and it was then Arquen believed that he alone of the Black Hand held the strength to do what he had to. That it was this reason the Mother had chosen him. Tears threatened, as they had in the meeting, now at the resolution of his mind, body and soul, the immovability, and she knew that only Two that existed truly held the power to make him stop, or to falter, once he was set upon something, be the task impossible or possible... the difference was as trivial in him as the gap in their ages.

"You are Her favourite son, Lucien", The High Elf murmured softly, leaning now against his shoulder, pressing her head to his tightly, gazing down into his calm eyes. At this, his free arm rose around the curve of her waist, drawing her closer to himself affectionately. "Her favourite child, even, I believe. I have been wrong about things before, as all have, but of this, I am certain. You do not strive to be so... nor is it your goal to be, it simply is. It is not a matter of faith, for there have been many of equal faith, not of accomplishment or skills. It is of your soul, Lucien... your soul that sets you apart from the rest of us... yet manages to be so very like ours. I do not know what it is, for as well as I know you, there are some depths, some layers, that cannot be glimpsed by mortal eyes... perhaps Vicente saw that in your heart when first he met you... I? I saw something else... I saw an ancient all knowing mind residing in a body far younger then it, that performed and brought about a glorious darkness wherever it ventured. I love you, dearest brother... and while we each have been set back in this investigation by the others... we would not be as far along as we are if either of us had given up. We will see this situation through to the end, as we did from the start, and we will do so together.".

Lucien uttered a faint appreciative laugh, a beautiful low note that carried into her ear at this sentiment, and the fire crackled and leap behind them. Under the pale blood light of the Masser, the ghost light Secunda and the orange glow of the fire illuminating their camp, and their grazing steeds, Lucien's hold around her waist tightened agreeably. His eyes, while partially contented, were somewhat distant as they had been in Ungolim's basement.

"We shall indeed see, my love."