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<\/p>\nThe little thatched-roof cabin smelled of herbs and wood smoke; the kettle burbled next to the fire. It was a beautiful, sunny day, light streaming in through the window, dust motes dancing about in its rays. Dardeh poured some of the hot water into the tea pot and waited for it to steep.\u00a0 He stoked the fire again, wiping the sweat off his brow in the stifling room. The rabbit stew in the cooking pot was beginning to smell wonderful.\u00a0 Needs some carrots, he thought.\u00a0 I\u2019ll do that in a bit. He stopped for a moment and listened to the quiet wheezing of his mother, in her bed next to the window where he\u2019d moved it some time ago.\u00a0 She loved to look out at the mountains and the sky.\u00a0 He sighed and strained a cup of hot tea into her favorite cup.<\/p>\n
\u201cDar?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYes, Ma?\u201d<\/p>\n
He walked to her bedside, carrying the cup.\u00a0 It was so hard, right now.\u00a0 She was shrinking before his eyes and there was nothing any of the healers had found to help her.\u00a0 Her hair had been more grey than blonde for many years, but now it was dull, lifeless, brittle. There were dark circles under her eyes the likes of which he\u2019d never seen, and she was too weak to do much of anything but sleep.\u00a0 Even eating seemed like a chore for her these days.\u00a0 It was breaking his heart.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
His mother was descended from the Nords who claimed the eastern half of Dragonstar back in the Third Era, though she herself had been born near Markarth, in Skyrim.\u00a0 She had raised Dardeh alone there, in a cluster of homes occupied by hardy souls who worked the silver mines. Once he had been old enough, and his body had changed from that of a little boy to the barrel-chested, muscled engine that she told him resembled her father\u2019s, he\u2019d gone to work in the mines, too, and had managed to support them well \u2013 or at least as well as one could on a miner\u2019s wages.\u00a0 She was a good woman, Dardeh\u2019s mother was, and had done everything she possibly could for him in spite of their meager circumstances, making sure he was fed and educated and loved. When she was gone he would be alone.\u00a0 He had always known that it would be that way some day, but he had assumed that day would come when she was very old. This was just too soon.<\/p>\n
\u201cDon\u2019t you need to be out at the mines?\u00a0 I don\u2019t want you to get in trouble.\u201d\u00a0 She smiled at him, her bright honey-bronze eyes looking watery and bloodshot.<\/p>\n
\u201cNo, Ma. I told them you weren\u2019t feeling well and the boss told me \u2018Dardeh, don\u2019t you dare show your face here until she\u2019s better.\u2019\u00a0 I\u2019ll be fine.\u201d\u00a0 That was a complete and utter lie, and Dardeh knew that she probably realized it, but he wasn\u2019t about to tell her how unsympathetic the overseer had actually been.\u00a0 It would be fine, though. As big as he was, Dardeh could bring more ore out of the mountain in a day than the next two men together. He was sure his absence was being felt. He expected to be welcomed back with enthusiasm once he returned.\u00a0 In the meantime, he intended to take care of his mother.<\/p>\n
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She chuckled. \u201cAll right then. Can you help me with this blanket? I\u2019m so chilly.\u00a0 Anyway, I need to tell you something before it\u2019s too late and I can\u2019t remember it anymore.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cOk, what is it?\u201d\u00a0 He placed the tea on the small stand next to her bed and pulled the blanket up around her shoulders, tucking it in around her the way she liked it.\u00a0 No need for her to be cold, and she got chilled very easily right now in spite of her being a Nord, in spite of the roaring fire going constantly.<\/p>\n
Then he sat down on the edge, gingerly; he was such a big man that he was afraid, at this stage, of crushing her if he missed his spot.<\/p>\n
\u201cThank you, dear.\u00a0 That\u2019s much better.\u201d\u00a0 She smiled up at him. \u201cYou know that I\u2019ve never told you very much about your da.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYeah. Not much. He wasn\u2019t your husband. That\u2019s about all.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cNo he wasn\u2019t. He was married to the most stunning Redguard girl.\u201d\u00a0 She smiled.\u00a0 \u201cWhat a surprise, yes? Two Redguards married to each other? But I chased after him anyway, silly thing that I was. He was a big handsome brute, just like his son.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cAre you calling me a brute?\u201d\u00a0 He raised one eyebrow and mocked a glare.<\/p>\n
She laughed, then winced.\u00a0 Dardeh sighed to himself. Damned disease.<\/p>\n
\u201cWell I kept tabs on him over the years, with the help of some mutual friends. I just wanted to make sure he was all right. He went south, back to Hammerfell, and all the way to Stros M\u2019Kai, and they settled there, as much as he ever settled anywhere. I\u2019m sure she wanted to get him as far away from me as she could, and it was probably a good idea.\u201d\u00a0 She sighed, but smiled again and winked at Dardeh. \u201cIn spite of everything I loved that big idiot and, well, people will be people, in the end. It wasn\u2019t right, what we did, but you were the result and there\u2019s never been a finer one ever.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cMa.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cDardeh.\u201d\u00a0 She smiled again.<\/p>\n
She was a happy person by nature, took life as it came to her with few complaints, and tried to make the best of everything.\u00a0 He\u2019d often thought about it. How hard must it have been to have found herself pregnant by a man who wasn\u2019t hers and wasn\u2019t ever going to be hers, to always be looked down upon by the busybodies around her, to never have an extra set of hands helping with a baby, or the house, or anything at all.\u00a0 And yet, she had never spoken ill of him, had rarely complained, and had done everything she could to make sure Dardeh was happy and healthy. Lots of other children with both parents didn\u2019t have that.<\/p>\n
In his mind, that made his mother a stronger person than most.<\/p>\n
\u201cI never told you this because you didn\u2019t have a father anyway and, well\u2026\u00a0 He\u2019s been gone for a long time now, Dar. Since you were just a boy.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cYou mean gone as in dead?\u201d<\/p>\n
She nodded.\u00a0 \u201cHe and his wife were killed in a bandit raid, quite a while ago now.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dardeh didn\u2019t know what he was supposed to feel.<\/p>\n
It wasn\u2019t as though his father had ever been a part of his life, done anything for him, come to visit, or had any influence on his rearing. All Dardeh knew of him was those swords.\u00a0 That\u2019s your heritage, she had told him so many times.\u00a0 Those are Redguard swords.\u00a0 Only Redguard men should be carrying those. I\u2019m a Nord, Ma, just like you, he\u2019d told her time and again, but she\u2019d insisted, and that was what he knew of his father \u2013 a faceless Redguard who left behind a set of swords and a son he never bothered with. He supposed that he felt bad for anyone who was killed before their time, but\u2026<\/p>\n
He looked at her thin face, wrapped as it was in a brilliant smile, and his heart ached for her that she\u2019d been alone all those years, raising him.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo why are you telling me this now, ma?\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause,\u201d she said, trying to raise herself up off the pillow a bit and failing, \u201cthey had a little girl, just a couple of years after you were born.\u00a0 What I am made to understand is that the girl survived.\u00a0 She was just a wee thing at the time, and they never found a body after the attack.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cIf that girl is alive, Dar, she\u2019s your sister.\u00a0 Or half-sister, anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
Dardeh\u2019s mouth dropped open.\u00a0 \u201cAre you serious?\u201d<\/p>\n
A sister? An actual, blood sibling?<\/em><\/p>\n \u201cYes.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cMa, why did you never tell me this before?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t know,\u201d she said, sighing and closing her eyes, her brows furrowing as another wave of pain rolled through her.\u00a0 Damn it, Dardeh thought.\u00a0 I\u2019d give anything to at least make her comfortable.\u00a0 She\u2019s trying so hard to hide it from me.<\/p>\n \u201cIt didn\u2019t seem as though telling you would accomplish a thing.\u00a0 And I wasn\u2019t even sure she was alive.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cBut now you are?\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cNo, I\u2019m not. But the friends who were keeping an eye on your father for me have said several times over the years that there was a girl there in Port Hunding who looks a lot like him. They got in touch with me a while ago.\u00a0 It seems that she left, and she probably took the boat to Daggerfall.\u00a0 Who knows where she might have gone from there; it would be a real long shot to find her, but it might be possible. They told me she got into a bit of a pickle some years back and has a scar on her face.\u00a0 Both your da and her ma had green eyes and black hair. That might help you find her if you go looking.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cI don\u2019t understand. Why tell me this now, Ma?\u201d<\/p>\n She patted his hand.\u00a0 \u201cBecause, my sweet boy, I\u2019m dying.\u00a0 I won\u2019t be around much longer. You know that. \u00a0You may yet have some family in this world and I wanted you to know about it, in case you want to go looking. If you don\u2019t, not a soul alive will mind; but if you didn\u2019t know you\u2019d never have the chance to decide for yourself.\u201d<\/p>\n Dardeh helped lift her forward and plumped her pillows.\u00a0 He covered her in her favorite blankets. He finished the rabbit stew and tried to feed her some of it, but all she managed was a few spoonfuls of the broth. It was something, at least, he thought, wracking his brain for something else that would be easy for her to eat, that he could make in the morning.<\/p>\n He pulled a chair next to her bed and sat with her, talking and laughing, until the wee hours. He fell asleep in the chair, for a while.<\/p>\n The sun was peeking into the room when he woke up. He stood and stretched; walked, yawning, over to the fireplace and began stoking it up.\u00a0 He stepped outside to draw some water for the teapot, then came in and set it to heat.<\/p>\n \u201cWhat kind of tea do you want this morning, Ma?\u201d<\/p>\n He started rummaging around in the food stores.\u00a0 Maybe some oatmeal would be good. Maybe.<\/p>\n \u201cCan you think of anything that might taste good to you today?\u201d<\/p>\n There was no answer.<\/p>\n He turned toward the bed, realizing that he hadn\u2019t heard her wheezing since he\u2019d opened his eyes.<\/p>\n \u201cMa?\u201d<\/p>\n He walked to her bedside and looked down at her.\u00a0 She was still smiling, but she was gone.<\/p>\n \u201cOh Ma,\u201d he said, a few fat tears dropping from his eyes and running down the side of his nose.\u00a0 Just like her. \u201cI\u2019m dying\u201d had meant \u201cI\u2019m dying right now<\/em>,\u201d not a general statement of things to come.\u00a0 She\u2019d always been like that, no unnecessary fanfare about anything.\u00a0 Leave it to her to keep things lighthearted until the very end.<\/p>\n \u201cI love you, Ma. I\u2019m glad it doesn\u2019t hurt anymore. Talos guide you.\u201d\u00a0 He smiled at her, wiping his eyes, tucking her in one last time so that she wouldn\u2019t be cold while he went to make arrangements for her interment in Markarth.\u00a0 He looked down at her again, then his gaze shifted to the table near her.<\/p>\n She never had drunk the tea.<\/p>\n The little thatched-roof cabin smelled of herbs and wood smoke; the kettle burbled next to the fire. It was a beautiful, sunny day, light streaming in through the window, dust motes dancing about in its rays. Dardeh poured some of the hot water into the tea pot and waited for it to steep.\u00a0 He stoked … <\/p>\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/baakay.com\/FanFic\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/01\/2-1-2-3.png\")
<\/p>\nPart I: Dardeh<\/a><\/div>\nPrevious<\/a> \/ Next<\/a><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"