Fanfic: "Reynasa's Story" Part 2 of ???? The Elder Scrolls (PG)
OC POV, mix of canon and OC characters. Post-Morrowind, spoilers for Morrowind and Oblivion.

Feedback, as always, most welcome, whether you know the fandom or not.

"Reynasa's Story"

I've found that just when you're most convinced that things will never change, change they do, and abruptly.



Very early one morning, when I was five, I was awoken from a sound sleep by someone shaking me lightly. I complained, but woke up enough to realize it was Mama who had awoken me, and that she looked very grave indeed. I put my arms around her, worried.

"Is Papa here?" Papa sometimes made surprise visits to Rethan Manor, which always made me very happy. But Mama wouldn't have looked so sad and stern if he were there, I knew that.

She shook her head, then sat down next to me on the bed. "No, little dumpling. Mama has to go away." Her beautiful copper eyes were sad, and her lean face looked more gaunt than usual, the cheekbones prominent under her ashen-grey skin.

I pouted. "You go away all the time." There was nothing new in that.

"Mama has to go away for a long time." There was a catch in her voice. "I don't want to leave you, but I have to." She squeezed me so tightly for a moment that I squirmed, and she released her hold a little.

"Will you come back?"

"Of course I will," she said, and gave me a kiss. "I'll always come back to you and Papa."

I sat in her lap for a long time, as she rocked me and stroked my long, red hair. I wasn't really worried, as she always did come back, but I hoped it wouldn't be for as long as she said.

"Be good for Papa and Grandfather and Hlodala, all right?" Mama asked.

I promised that I would be, and she smiled, her mouth drawn more tightly than usual. "I have a present for you," she said. "Two of them."

I loved presents.

She put a shiny silver amulet around my neck, which also had a silver ring with a green stone looped through the amulet chain. "If you ever get lost, the amulet will bring you to the nearest temple. Just tell the priests who you are, and they'll take good care of you and help you get home. And if you ever get hurt, ask the ring to help you to get better. You'll have to be patient, because it won't heal you all at once, but it will make you feel better soon. Here, tuck them under your shirt," she helped me do so, "so you won't lose them."

"But I want people to see them!"

"They can, you can take them out whenever you like. But it's safest to have them tucked away while you wear them, so they won't get lost or stolen. When your hands are bigger, you can wear the ring on your finger, too. Right now, it would fall off." She cocked her head and looked at me meaningfully. "Now, what do you say?" she prompted.

"Oh. Thank you, Mama."

"Good girl." She smiled again, less tightly this time, and kissed me. "Love you, little dumpling!"

I think she wanted me to go back to sleep, but of course I was awake and excited by then. So I watched her arm herself, seeing my warm, loving mother vanish under the weight of shining metal and spiky green glass armor. She had Goldbrand, her golden sword, at her hip, her longbow on her back with her quiver of ebony and glass arrows, and several savage-looking daggers in her belt. I almost never saw her without the daggers, she would have looked naked without them.

I walked with her down the stairs. Everyone was assembled in the main room of the house and looked very serious. I ran over to Lliryn Fendyn to show him my new gifts. Meanwhile, Mama had knelt to Grandfather and asked for his blessing. He gave it, in a low voice. Lliryn gave me a little push and I ran to Mama. We hugged each other as tightly as we could, she being very careful not to hurt me. She then turned and walked out the door. I started to follow, but Grandfather picked me up.

I called "Mama!" and started to cry. Her previous departures had been much more casual, without this brooding weight to them. Grandfather, his face set and still, walked out the door with me. We stood in the doorway, and I watched my retreating mother take three more steps and vanish. She had teleported somewhere.

I did not know then how very long it would be until I saw my mother again.

Having changed, my life continued to do so. A few weeks later, Papa came to visit. I was ecstatic. He seemed very large to me, although he was really not more than middling height, but he was barrel-chested and had an imposing aura about him. He would have been in his mid-forties in those days, young for an elf, but not so young by human standards. His skin was quite different from everyone else's, pale pink and easily sunburned, whereas we Dunmer were a sturdy dark grey that could withstand any climate. His eyes were different too, brown, rather than red or copper, and with more obvious whites. He was powerful within the House Hlaalu hierarchy, but not always admired. Some of the manor residents chose to make themselves scarce when he was around, notably my mother's agent, Unila Berendas, who tended to retreat to her house, door locked and possibly trapped. But I loved Papa dearly. He was playful and extravagant in word and gesture, but nobody's fool.

"How's my little dumpling?" he crowed, and swept me up in his arms. Up close, I could see how sad his eyes were, under the surface laughter.

"I miss Mama," I said flat out.

He nodded. "Me too. How would you like to come live with me for a while, and maybe together we won't miss her so much?"

I thought about it. I looked around the courtyard, at the mushroom tree, the houses with the stairs that I liked to sit on, the roof with the picnic table where we all ate on fine nights with a wary eye out for passing cliff racers. I shook my head. "I like it here," I said.

Papa sighed. "I know you do. But I need my little dumpling with me in Vivec. Well, think about it." He gave me a little squeeze and set me down.

I later saw him talking with Hlodala Savel and Lliryn Fendyn and Grandfather, very softly and seriously. They shook their heads at first, but then nodded, their faces grim.

It wasn't as though I had much choice. I was five, and he was my father. Plus, he outranked them all, even though he was merely human and not Dunmer. A few days later, Hlodala helped me pack my things, and we all walked down to the dock at Hla Oad. There were some startled looks at the swanks of Rethan Manor coming down the hill en masse, and Cousin Avron had his hand resting, very casually, on his swordhilt. I gave Lliryn an extra-tight hug, and Papa helped me onto the boat. We waved goodbye until the banks retreated out of sight.

I was too excited to stay sad long. Both Papa and the shipmaster sternly warned me not to run about, so I clung to the rail and peered over the side as best as I could.

I saw a cliff racer overhead. I pointed to it and shouted "Mama shoots 'em!" The shipmaster smiled grimly and said "And WE outrun 'em." She gave rapid orders to the crew, and the boat shot ahead.

When we were underway, I fished out my amulet and ring and showed them off proudly to Papa. He thought it was wise of Mama to give me the teleportation amulet, which he said had a permanent Almsivi Intervention spell on it, very useful. He sucked in his breath a bit when I explained the ring.

"So she gave you her regeneration ring!" he said. "Hang on to that, little dumpling. There aren't many of them about, and they are extremely useful. I'm glad you have it to remember her by."

He looked sad again, and I snuggled up next to Papa on the bench as he put an arm around me, and I dozed off.

I woke up with a start when the boat bumped the dock, and looked around, confused. We had been traveling for some time, and it was near sunset.

"Are we at Vivec, Papa?"

"We are, and soon we'll be home at Curio Manor. I've got your own room set up for you there."

I looked around. I'd never seen anything so beautiful, green rolling hills, flaring pink and gold sunset, deepening blue waters. The great towering cantons of Vivec loomed over us.

The shipmaster seemed remarkably eager to get us off the boat. I noticed Papa scrutinizing the way the boat sat in the water with a keen eye. He said nothing, however, merely thanking the shipmaster for her trouble and slipping her a purse that made her eyebrows fly up when she weighed it in her hand.

I stumbled as we got onto dry land, falling on my knees in front of a patch of pink heather.

"Are there alchemists in Vivec?" I asked Papa.

He looked as though he were trying to hold back a laugh. "Many alchemists, including a very fine one right by my house."

I smiled. Vivec might not be so bad after all. I harvested the heather, put it in my pack, and Papa swung me up on his shoulders, telling me to hold on tightly.