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<\/p>\nThe sandstorm started up again just as they crossed through the gates.<\/p>\n
It was just a slight breeze, at first, lifting a bit of fine dust into the air, enough to make Sayma sneeze. It picked up a bit as they entered the narrow opening through the several ranks of stone walls, enough to rattle nearby bones. Sayma looked for the source of the sound and nearly jumped; for the bones that she heard rattle were part of a huge pile of skeletons clustered together in a low corner just to their right.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat happened here?\u201d she whispered.<\/p>\n
Brynjolf stepped nearer to the pile and knelt down, examining the area, moving a few of the bones gently and respectfully aside to look at others.\u00a0 After a moment he stood and shook his head.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo idea. It almost looks like they gathered in the corner and got murdered all at once. Look how they\u2019re all facing the same way? I think we should prepare for the worst.\u201d<\/p>\n
Sayma nodded and continued down the pathway. They barely got beyond the first wall when the wind picked up, and with it the sharp, stinging sand. By the time they\u2019d walked another two dozen paces, they were in a full-blown sandstorm once again.\u00a0 And it was dark; full, middle-of-the-night dark.<\/p>\n
\u201cThis is making me nervous. Stay low,\u201d she whispered to Brynjolf.<\/p>\n
He chuckled. \u201cAye. I think I see movement up ahead.\u201d<\/p>\n
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<\/p>\n
So yes, that was clever of me, telling the Guildmaster of the Thieves Guild how to sneak. I\u2019m a fool.\u00a0 At least he didn\u2019t give me a hard time about it.<\/em><\/p>\n It was nearly too dark to see, but they proceeded into what was clearly a Redguard settlement like Ben Erai, nestled behind incongruously Imperial-style city walls. The buildings, while it was too dark to see their colors, were of the same construction as those in Ben Erai: one- or two-story houses with stairs leading to rooftop patios. Their occupants, though, were what made it clear this was a Redguard city; for as they snaked their way through the streets, they had to avoid dozens of men in Alik\u2019r warrior garb.<\/p>\n And all of them were specters.<\/p>\n \u201cI wonder if they go with the bones at the gate?\u201d Brynjolf whispered.<\/p>\n She turned to glare at him and hold a finger up before her mouth.\u00a0 She could almost see his eyes twinkling in amusement, even under his hood.<\/p>\n They were silent enough that the ghosts seemed to be unaware of their presence as they moved through the town, poking their heads into the open doors of homes partially filled with sand. Most of the buildings held skeletons, either inside or at the base of the stairwells. It looked as though the people had perished simultaneously, in the midst of their activities, perhaps during an attack of some kind. Sayma and Brynjolf swapped glances often as they pushed through the storm, and it was clear to Sayma that he was just as confused as she.<\/p>\n The town followed the slope up toward the mountains into which it was set. Between gusts of wind and sand they could just make out a tall structure, perhaps a temple, at the highest point in the city. In front of it was a taller home, one with two full stories and a rooftop patio; and because it was the only such building they\u2019d passed Sayma decided to investigate it further.\u00a0 She slipped past a ghost wandering nearby and climbed the two flights of stairs up to the partially-enclosed patio on the roof. The partial enclosure blocked the wind just a bit and she slipped inside, grateful for the break from the stinging sands.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat\u2019s in here?\u201d Brynjolf asked as he followed her into the room.<\/p>\n \u201cBesides breathing room, I\u2019m not sure. Oh, there\u2019s a skeleton,\u201d she said, pointing at the figure on the floor. \u201cAnd there\u2019s a chest over here. Should I look?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes. Maybe we\u2019ll find something to shed a little light on what\u2019s going on here.\u201d<\/p>\n Inside the chest, Sayma found some coins, which she pocketed. One did not leave coins behind, particularly when their previous owner was clearly deceased.\u00a0 There was a book there, which she lifted out and glanced at before her attention turned to a key resting in the bottom.<\/p>\n \u201cHmm. I\u2019m taking this. I\u2019m going to hazard a guess that it goes to that big temple building behind us.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cGood call. What\u2019s this book?\u201d\u00a0 Brynjolf took it from her and started skimming the pages. \u201cWe Are Yokudans<\/em>\u201d it says.\u201d He read quietly for a moment. \u201cAlright. It says this town was founded by the same people who built Ben Erai. Yokudans.\u201d He glanced up at her. \u201cThis place must be ancient. They started building the city but stumbled into the tomb of someone named Sadraaka, who laid a curse on them.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cA curse? Really? I wonder if it\u2019s what killed all those trees back there, as well.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s like the whole area was cursed,\u201d he agreed. \u201cWell this isn\u2019t your oasis, and it\u2019s not where we\u2019re going to find the Cowl, but I have this feeling.\u201d<\/p>\n She grinned at him. \u201cYeah. I can guess. We need to see if we can set things right?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAye.\u201d He shook his head. \u201cI know it sounds strange, especially since I want to get this done. But it feels important.\u201d<\/p>\n Sayma considered for a moment. She, too, felt increasingly pressured to find the Cowl and deal with whatever it was causing her sense of impending doom. But she studied Brynjolf\u2019s expression and came to the only conclusion she could.<\/p>\n Bryn\u2019s instincts have almost always been right on target. The only time he\u2019s ever been wrong was in trusting Mercer Frey. I\u2019m not going to start second-guessing him on this. <\/em><\/p>\n \u201cAlright. Let\u2019s go. I say we head for that temple. It\u2019s got to be there, whatever the answer is.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAye,\u201d Brynjolf said, bounding back down the staircase before Sayma could say anything else.<\/p>\n And everything went sideways.<\/p>\n Sayma started after him, alarmed.\u00a0 The wind and sand caught her squarely in the face as soon as she stepped out from behind the slight protection of the covered patio, and she had to stop, to pull her scarf up over her face as best she could, fighting against the howling wind to do so. She struggled to bring her bow around into position.<\/p>\n \u201cPathetic mortal! No one hides from the dead!\u201d<\/p>\n Her eyes went wide, and it felt as though her blood turned to ice.<\/p>\n They found him. <\/em><\/p>\n She leaned against the sandstorm and forced her way to the edge of the first landing. Below her were no fewer than seven ghostly Alik\u2019r warriors, all converging on Brynjolf.\u00a0 He was firing at them with his bow, but as they closed the circle around him he changed to his sword and dagger.<\/p>\n \u201cBryn!!\u201d\u00a0 She shouted, knowing what a wasted effort it was. The Alik\u2019r were shouting, and banging swords against shields, and the wind was whistling through all the alleys and openings in the buildings. Just the force of the sand against his hood would make her voice impossible to hear.\u00a0 But she shouted to him anyway.<\/p>\n Sayma started firing from the edge of the second floor landing, and was able to take down one of the warriors; but the rest were beginning to attack Brynjolf, and she could hear his grunts of pain as they struck him. She started for the stairs to run to his aid just as a spectral mage fired a lightning spell at him. She could see Brynjolf in its light, clearly, trying hard to escape toward her right; but then the spell died, and she was for a moment blinded between its aftereffects and the darkness of the sand storm. Her heart started pounding, as she tried desperately to see him, to hear his voice, to catch the scent of a live person, anything at all that would help her find him.<\/p>\n I have to get us out of here! I have to get him out of here!<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cThe endless sleep comes for us all,\u201d she heard, close by to her left; she ducked down the stairs and around the corner of the house hoping to slip by, somehow, and rejoin Brynjolf.\u00a0 Up ahead she could see him, surrounded by angry Alik\u2019r ghosts, and could hear the clash of his sword against theirs.\u00a0 She could hear him cry out when he was struck, even over the howling of the wind.<\/p>\n \u201cDie!\u201d she screamed as her next shot caught one of the ghosts squarely in its head, taking it down.<\/p>\n All of them turned to look at her.\u00a0 There were at least eight of them, and they all began running in her direction.<\/p>\n Oh shit.<\/em><\/p>\n Sayma turned and ran, back around the corner of the tall house, back toward the even darker corners between it and the mountain.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are not welcome here,\u201d she heard behind her, just as she scrambled up the rocks toward the temple\u2019s outer wall.\u00a0 An arrow whizzed past her head and clattered onto the stones in front of her; she threw herself over the short wall onto the temple grounds just in time to avoid another.<\/p>\n It was a temple, clearly, its construction very like what she had encountered in the Halls of the West but with older, symbolic carvings around the onion-shaped doorway before her, rather than Daedric lettering.\u00a0 There was a plaza \u2013 a platform high above the homes of the city beneath, just on the other side of the doorway \u2013 and she made for it, shuddering when she saw the skeleton in a cage suspended high above the ground.\u00a0 The other people in this place seemed to have had quick deaths. She was fairly certain this person hadn\u2019t.<\/p>\n Below her, the battle continued.\u00a0 Another flash of lightning streaked across the open space, and a second; and while she could not see Brynjolf she knew that if they were still firing at him, that must mean he was still holding his own.\u00a0 She began raining arrows down on the glowing, ghostly figures, and several of them dissipated; but several of them turned to see the source of the arrows and ran toward the stairs to the temple, to attack her. Sayma ran back into the temple grounds and crouched, invoking her Nightingale invisibility.<\/p>\n \u201cSuch an abrupt end to our game!\u201d one of the ghosts called out.<\/p>\n She should have known that it was referring to her. She should have known that her power had done what it was supposed to do, and the ghost had lost track of her.\u00a0 But in her panic, Sayma had one searing thought tear through her mind:\u00a0 They\u2019ve killed him.\u00a0 Brynjolf is dead. <\/em><\/p>\n She did the very last thing she should have done.\u00a0 She stood, ran back to the edge of the temple grounds, dropped down\u00a0 and raced back up the street. Seven Alik\u2019r ghosts advanced on a figure who was made visible only by virtue of the magical ice spike glowing where it had pierced his body.<\/p>\n \u201cGet away from him!\u201d she screamed, firing at the nearest ghost to Brynjolf.\u00a0 It dropped.\u00a0 Her next shot went wide, and so did the third. The ghostly warriors were almost on top of him.<\/p>\n Then the most remarkable thing happened. \u00a0Brynjolf raised his head and met her gaze, and even as far away as they were and as loud as the battle was in the midst of the storm, she swore that she heard him speak.<\/p>\n \u201cRun, lass.\u201d<\/p>\n Half the ghosts had turned to chase her down.\u00a0 She was in light armor. She had no real chance of surviving a close fight with multiple, ghostly enemies.\u00a0 So she turned, and she fled.<\/p>\n She ran back to the stairs leading to the temple, and up the stairs, and toward the metal gate at the end of them. It suddenly became very quiet behind her, and once again she heard a ghostly voice.<\/p>\n \u201cSuch an abrupt end to our little game.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBryn!\u201d\u00a0 Sayma screamed at the top of her lungs. \u201cBRYNJOLF!\u201d She ran as close as she dared to the edge of the plaza, looking into the blackness, frantically searching for anything that wasn\u2019t a shimmering ghost, listening for any hint of his voice.<\/p>\n But there was no response. Instead, she heard the ghosts calling out threats and moving toward her.<\/p>\n She sprinted back to the gate and pulled on it, only to find it locked. Fumbling in her pockets to find the key they\u2019d discovered in the tall house, she struggled to use it on the gate as the tears blurred her eyes and fell onto her hands. Finally, finally, the lock clicked open, and she ran through the gate and into the crypt beyond.<\/p>\n The space inside was nearly identical to some she\u2019d seen before, but her mind refused to recall which it had been. Before she had a chance to think about it or do anything else, another figure emerged from the room below her. This was also an Alik\u2019r warrior, but skeletal, and black, and floating above the ground, and she screamed and shot two arrows at it in quick succession.<\/p>\n \u201cDie!\u201d she shrieked, as it toppled over backward and dispersed into a black patch on the tiles. She stared at it for a moment and then jumped as an arrow narrowly missed her on the right.\u00a0 Down the ramp in front of her, at the end of a narrow corridor, another of the corrupted warriors floated toward her.\u00a0 She drew another arrow and fired it at the creature, killing it in one efficient shot.<\/p>\n Then she looked down at the dark patch on the floor; and while she saw a black, glistening spot her mind remembered a glittering pile of red ash on a cold beach, and she remembered the man she had known as Andante. And she thought of Brynjolf, and how the two men had loved each other, and how they were now both gone.<\/p>\n She collapsed onto the floor of the darkened corridor, wailing.\u00a0 Howling.\u00a0 Her heart was disintegrating into a million pieces.<\/p>\n He\u2019s dead. He\u2019s gone. I led him into a disaster and he\u2019s GONE and it\u2019s MY fault.\u00a0 No, no, no. No. I just needed one more chance. I needed to give him that peace, to let him say goodbye to Dynjyl, to pay tribute to Andante. But he\u2019s gone and I\u2019ll never see him again.<\/em><\/p>\n She\u2019d never cried so hard in her life.\u00a0 Not when Coyle and Daron drove her away for their love of skooma; not when Roggi had said \u201cfind your own way to keep warm\u201d and walked away because of his hatred of bandits and thieves and what had been done to his life; and not even when she\u2019d been a little girl wailing over the bodies of her mother and father, murdered for reasons she had never known for certain. Not even those things had seemed so earth-shattering, so horrible, so final as knowing that Brynjolf had been overcome by the angry, violent shades of long-dead, long-cursed Alik\u2019r warriors who wanted only to have revenge on whatever walked into their domain.<\/p>\n Every moment she\u2019d ever had with him – every twitch of his eyebrows, every curl of his mouth, every sarcastic comment \u2013 ran through her mind.\u00a0 The desperate chase of Mercer Frey, the moment when time stood still at the mouth of Bronze Water Cave.\u00a0 The look in his eyes when he saw the Amulet of Mara around her neck and asked whether she was referring to him. \u00a0Their wedding.\u00a0 Every moment passed through her mind and every memory broke her heart a bit more.<\/p>\n It doesn\u2019t matter whether Dynjyl is freed now.\u00a0 I\u2019ll do it, I\u2019ll do it anyway to honor him, but it doesn\u2019t matter anymore because he\u2019s gone. Brynjolf is gone. And I\u2019m alone. All I have of him is his son and once he is a grown man I\u2019ll have nothing at all.<\/em><\/p>\n How could I have done this? How was I so stupid?<\/em><\/p>\n She curled into a ball and cried until there were no more tears, and even then she rocked herself back and forth in the darkened passage, feeling as though she might never return to Falkreath at all and nobody would miss her if she didn\u2019t.\u00a0 After all they had been through together, and apart, after trying to work back toward him, realizing how much she loved him, the idea that she would never hold him again was too much to bear.<\/p>\n And it was her fault for leading him into an ambush.<\/p>\n She couldn\u2019t stop weeping.\u00a0 This must have been what he felt like when Andante died.\u00a0 This must have been what he felt like when Dynjyl died. <\/em><\/p>\n Except that he\u2019s my <\/em>husband, not just a lover. He\u2019s the one I chose, my forever. Even when I was stupid and left him he was always my forever. I never stopped loving him. And now he\u2019s gone and I\u2019ll never get to tell him that.<\/em><\/p>\n Long minutes passed, how many she could not have said, while the sobs subsided and were replaced by a deep, cold silence unlike any she\u2019d experienced.\u00a0 She sat with her head down, unaware, not able to muster the strength to stand or take stock of her surroundings.<\/p>\n As if from far away a part of her mind said you have a son. You have to keep going, for him. <\/em>But she shook her head.\u00a0 He doesn\u2019t need me. He has Dardeh, and Roggi, and Lydia, and he has Sofie and Lucia to grow up with. Even if the worst happens and the war breaks them apart they\u2019ll find a way to care for the children. They\u2019re some of the finest people I\u2019ve ever known. He\u2019ll be better off without me. Just like his father would have been better off without me.<\/em><\/p>\n There was no reply; not from her other voice, not from her father\u2019s specter. Not from the quiet, deep voice that had been telling her to come to him.\u00a0 She squeezed her eyes shut and tried to think of nothing, tried to become nothing.\u00a0 And the time passed.<\/p>\n \u201cSayma? Are you in here?\u201d<\/p>\n The deep brogue startled her so badly that she was on her feet without knowing how she\u2019d gotten there.\u00a0 She whirled to look behind her.<\/p>\n He was standing there, silhouetted by the dim light at the entrance, but there was no question that it was him.\u00a0 She started trembling.<\/p>\n \u201cBrynjolf!\u00a0 Oh my gods, Brynjolf!\u201d<\/p>\n Sayma didn\u2019t stop to think.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t think about having hurt him, betrayed him, left him behind.\u00a0 She didn\u2019t think about what he had done with his life in the years between then and now.\u00a0 She simply flew to him, threw her hands behind his head and began kissing him.<\/p>\n Some long moments passed before it slowly occurred to her that Brynjolf\u2019s arms were around her, and that he was returning the kiss.\u00a0 It was gentle, and reassuring, and sweet, and as familiar as though no days, months, or years had intervened between this kiss and the last, long before. Her tears started flowing again.\u00a0 She had to pull back from him.\u00a0 She slipped her hands down around his waist, buried her head against his chest and wept more.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m right here, lass,\u201d he murmured.\u00a0 \u201cIt\u2019s all right. It\u2019s all right.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI thought,\u201d she managed to croak out between shuddering sobs, \u201cthat you were dead.\u00a0 I\u2019m so sorry, Bryn, I led you right into them. I couldn\u2019t see you and there were so many of them. I thought you were dead because of me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo,\u201d he said quietly, and it seemed to her as though he pulled her a bit closer. \u201cI\u2019m not dead.\u00a0 I\u2019ve been dead before, Sayma. Death is highly overrated.\u201d<\/p>\n She couldn\u2019t help it; she laughed, just a quick burst of amusement through the tears that refused to stop flowing.<\/p>\n \u201cI always keep invisibility potions with me,\u201d he continued. \u201cYou know that.\u00a0 It was pretty clear they were going to have the better of me if I kept trying to fight. They almost had me, actually. So I took one and found a spot to hide while I healed up a bit, and then followed your footprints.\u00a0 Though it isn\u2019t easy out there in that sandstorm, as dark as it is. That\u2019s why it took me so long to find you.\u201d<\/p>\n He didn\u2019t let go of her.\u00a0 She closed her eyes and savored his warmth. His hand, large and gentle, was rubbing her back up and down and it was the most wonderful touch she could remember having in a very long time.<\/p>\n \u201cIt wasn\u2019t your fault, Sayma, it was mine. I just ran down those stairs and into the city without even thinking about it and alerted every single one of those things. I did exactly what Dynjyl did the day he died, and I\u2019m a fool. I\u2019ve always been a fool, just as my father named me.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYour father named you what?\u201d<\/p>\n Brynjolf chuckled. When he spoke, it was as though he was a different man, speaking in tones she\u2019d never heard before.<\/p>\n \u201c\u2019A cocksure, impulsive, worthless thievin\u2019 brat and yer gonna get yerself er someone else killed wi\u2019 it one of these days!\u2019\u201d <\/em>He cleared his throat. \u201cThat\u2019s what he told me. I told you he didn\u2019t like me very much. I\u2019ve never forgotten it, those exact words. They usually come calling when I\u2019ve done something stupid, like walking into a nest of vengeful ghosts without bothering to keep to the shadows the way I know how to do.\u201d<\/p>\n His own father told him that. What kind of a man says that to his own child?<\/em><\/p>\n She frowned.<\/em><\/p>\n The same kind of father who would tell Dardeh he wasn\u2019t worthy to carry his swords. My father.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cBut you\u2019re alive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cAye.\u00a0 I\u2019m alive.\u00a0 And so are you.\u201d\u00a0 He pushed her back from him, slipped her hood down off her head, and tipped her chin up to study her face. \u201cA little puffy around the eyes, but alive. I\u2019m sorry you had to think I was gone. That\u2019s the worst feeling in the world and I wouldn\u2019t wish it on anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n Oh Bryn. Yes it is, and I know that you\u2019ve had more experience with that than anyone ever should have in a lifetime.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s all right. You\u2019re alive. That\u2019s all that matters.\u201d She looked him over, and saw the tears in his armor where he\u2019d been slashed, and where the ice spike had struck him, and shuddered to think how near a thing it had been.\u00a0 Then she laughed at herself for not having realized that Brynjolf would have had a backup plan, a potion for emergencies.\u00a0 He\u2019d probably been pulling it out of a pouch when he had told her to run.<\/p>\n You have to trust him, fool<\/em>, her sarcastic inner voice said in the first utterance it had made for some time. He\u2019s at least as good as you are at this kind of thing. Maybe better. Definitely more experienced.<\/em><\/p>\n She smiled at him, laughing at her inner voice which was, as it so often had been, exactly right. \u201cHe was right about you being a thief, though,\u201d she said. \u201cA very, very good one.\u201d<\/p>\n He smiled at her, a small, gentle smile that reached his eyes. \u201cI want to tell you something,\u201d he said, reaching up to touch her face on the side that had once carried a long, pale scar. \u201cI\u2019m not sure whether I should, but it\u2019s been on my mind.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cYes?\u201d\u00a0 She leaned into his palm, savoring the contact.<\/p>\n \u201cYou are \u2026 beautiful,\u201d he said softly.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat?\u201d\u00a0 She was stunned.\u00a0 It was the last thing she\u2019d expected to hear.<\/p>\n He smiled again, an embarrassed smile. \u201cYou\u2019ve always been beautiful, you know. That was one of the things that made it tough for me back when I first met you, looking at a beautiful woman and needing to see a thief. But now you are just\u2026 stunning.\u201d<\/p>\n He shook his head. \u201cListen to me, saying such a thing in a place like this. I sound like a con man.\u201d<\/p>\n She tipped her head to one side and smirked. \u201cYou are<\/em> a con man, Brynjolf.\u201d<\/p>\n He grinned. \u201cThat\u2019s true. \u00a0But this is real. I didn\u2019t want to forget to tell you, this time. I\u2019ve learned the hard way that I seem to have a talent for forgetting to tell people important things. I was lucky to have a second chance to speak to Dynjyl. This isn\u2019t exactly where or when I thought I\u2019d be saying it, but I\u2019m not going to let this chance get by. And you, Sayma Sendu, are beautiful.\u201d<\/p>\n He leaned down and kissed her again, slowly.\u00a0 She closed her eyes and tasted him and felt how much he had changed, and how much he hadn\u2019t changed.\u00a0 This was a man who had known more power than she would ever encounter in her lifetime, and who had lost it; who had experienced a wildly improbable love after she left him, one that had touched his soul in ways she would never understand, and yet was here with her, acting as though \u2026<\/p>\n He kissed me.\u00a0 He \u2013 kissed me.\u00a0 Not the other way around.<\/em><\/p>\n Good to know you can appreciate the obvious.<\/em><\/p>\n Shut up and let me kiss the man.<\/em><\/p>\n After a long moment, he pulled back and kissed her on the cheek, stroked her hair.<\/p>\n \u201cMmm,\u201d he said. \u201cThat was\u2026 nice. Very nice. But I think we need to pay attention to where we are, Sayma. I don\u2019t want one of us to be worried about the other again.\u201d<\/p>\n It struck her then, what was different about him. When he\u2019d first spoken to her, as a vampire, outside the Sanctuary, he\u2019d been supremely confident and self-assured. Arrogant, even, in the fullness of his power; and knowing what little she knew about vampires she knew he and Andante must have been a terrifying team, deserving of their own self-assuredness. But there had been an edge to that feeling, anger, almost. She\u2019d seen it in Andante from the time she\u2019d first met him. It was a cruel power that he and Brynjolf each had, and it was restless.<\/p>\n She knew that restlessness.\u00a0 It came from wanting to kill, needing to kill.\u00a0 They\u2019d both needed to kill, all the time, just to exist.<\/p>\n Now Brynjolf seemed controlled. Calm. Relaxed about his own abilities, even though he no longer had fangs and claws that could rip an opponent apart, or spells that could drain them of their vital essence.<\/p>\n I think it\u2019s the first time I\u2019ve ever seen him like this. When I first met him he was always on edge, worried about the Guild.\u00a0 Even after we were married, it felt as though he was always looking over his shoulder somehow. There\u2019s something about all the things that have happened to him that has given him a center he didn\u2019t have before.<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cCome on,\u201d he said, nodding toward the open and unexplored corridor beyond them. Let\u2019s see what\u2019s in here. I have a feeling that we were supposed to come here. Maybe we can set things right in this place.\u201d<\/p>\n Sayma nodded and started toward the hallway to their right.<\/p>\n That\u2019s what it is, isn\u2019t it.\u00a0 He wants to set things right.<\/em><\/p>\n And so do I.<\/em><\/p>\n The sandstorm started up again just as they crossed through the gates. It was just a slight breeze, at first, lifting a bit of fine dust into the air, enough to make Sayma sneeze. It picked up a bit as they entered the narrow opening through the several ranks of stone walls, enough to rattle … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/4-1-20-3.png\")
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<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/4-1-20-9.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/4-1-20-10.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/4-1-20-11.png\")
<\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/03\/4-1-20-12.png\")
<\/p>\nPart I: Sayma Sendu<\/a><\/div>\nPrevious<\/a> \/ Next<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"