Chapter Text
Alexa
She was suspended – floating – in nothingness. She was neither hot, nor cold, and the darkness around her was more a uniform emptiness than the solid darkness of being underground. The only light appeared to be coming from herself. She raised a hand to inspect the faint white radiance that emanated from it.
Slowly she became aware of a presence in the darkness around her: a cloud of lesser darkness swirling with pin pricks of colored light. Something in her recognized it and was pleased not to be alone. The cloud enfolded her gently its many points of light flowing softly across her skin. She noticed that the lights closest to her glowed slightly brighter than those that were farther away.
“You are beautiful,” she whispered.
The colored lights stopped, as if startled. Then, after what appeared to be a moment of indecision, they condensed, solidifying into a dremora. He was warm, and reassuringly solid, compared to the emptiness around her.
Fascinated, and apparently incapable of fear in her current dream state, she traced the red markings on his face with her fingertips before tipping her chin up and kissing him softly.
He returned her kiss eagerly, drinking the light from her lips.
Companions - Whiterun
Ysolda was giggling with Fralia Gray-Mane in the market. Farkas wasn’t at all interested in what they were saying until he heard Alexa’s name mentioned. She had a job near Riften, her first in the area since they’d discovered her former connection to the Thieves Guild, and would have checked in at Jorrvaskr if she’d completed it so, whatever the two women were talking about, it couldn’t be important. He went back to frowning at Anoriath’s selection of game and didn’t think of it again until later that evening when Eorlund Gray-Mane settled into the chair between him and Vilkas.
Eorlund took a long pull from the tankard in his hand, before shifting his weight slightly to look at Vilkas. “You see little Alexa when she blew through town last night?” he asked somberly.
“Alexa was in town?” Vilkas asked, brows drawing together.
Eorlund glanced at Farkas who shook his head. “If she was, she didn’t come up here,” he told the older man.
The corners of the old smith’s mouth turned downwards. “Hmm. I thought it would be you,” he muttered to Vilkas.
“Thought I would be what?” Vilkas asked, clearly as confused as Farkas.
“She bought a ring from Ysolda,” the smith told him, and took another swig from his tankard.
Farkas frowned at that. He knew she was trying to learn enchanting, but there was no reason to buy a ring from Ysolda for that when she could – and often did – make her own. Still, his friend could be more than a little strange at times. So he shrugged dismissively.
“She bought a wedding ring,” Eorlund told them, his eyes darting back and forth between their faces.
Farkas choked, glancing worriedly at his brother.
“Tell us what you know, old man!” Vilkas growled, low and threatening.
“You’d have to ask Ysolda if you want to know more,” the smith told Vilkas. “I heard from my wife who heard from her. That’s far too many people between you and the truth for something like this.”
Alexa - Markarth
Alexa came awake with a groan. A woman was yelling at her… something about blaspheming – which she never did, the gods paid far too much attention to her for that sort of thing to be safe – fondling some statues and blathering about marriage and… a goat? It didn’t make any sense. She looked around her. Oh, those statues. Ok, not usually her thing, but, if one were going to take up statue fondling, statues of Dibella seemed like a logical choice.
Now, what was that about marriage? She looked down at her hands and froze in shock.
Companions - Morvunskar
Morvunskar had been a waste of time. Just a ruin filled with hostile mages with no evidence of Alexa, or a wedding.
“Look on the bright side,” Aela grinned at Vilkas as they started back to Whiterun. “At least you know that story she told Ysolda about meeting her true love, like something out of a romantic ballad, was a lie.”
Farkas gave her a warning glance and Vilkas actually growled. Aela laughed again. Alexa was going to be so amused by all of this!
Alexa - Whiterun
“So, this isn’t the ring you sold me?” Alexa asked Ysolda, holding out her hand.
The other woman shook her head. “No, that’s much nicer than anything I had in stock. Your husband must be very wealthy.”
“Ok, so your ring must have been for my husband. Did I say anything to you about him or our plans?”
Ysolda gave her a look of wide-eyed concern.
Alexa rubbed her temple. “Seriously. I can’t remember anything from the last ten days. I don’t know what happened to me, but I’m beginning to think it was a good deal more than a drinking contest gone wrong. Anything you can tell me would be a great help.”
“Only that you said you met your true love in a misty place, and that you intended to have your wedding reception at Morvunskar. It… sounded amazing,” Ysolda added regretfully.
“Thanks Ysolda,” Alexa kissed her cheek. “I’m going to go look into that. When I get back I’ll sell some of the stuff I’ve picked up to pay you back, honest. Just… don’t tell anyone about this until I’ve figured it out.”
Then she was off again before Ysolda could tell her that the Companions already knew.
Companions - Whiterun
“You just missed her!” Ysolda called out to Aela, Farkas and Vilkas as they passed through the market later that afternoon.
“What?” Vilkas barked.
“Alexa,” Ysolda squeaked, taking a step back. “She was here first thing this morning asking about the ring and her wedding plans…”
“Why would she do that?” Aela asked, putting a restraining hand on Vilkas.
“Seems she can’t remember anything from the past ten days,” Ysolda told them. “Oh, also, her hair is deathbell purple now!”
Alexa – Morvunskar
There were a surprising number of bodies littered around the place, Alexa noted as she snuck through the crumbling ruin. Not that anyone appeared to be alive to be snuck up on, but caution suggested that whoever had killed all these mages might still be around. Something about the carnage spoke to her of members of the Circle, but that couldn’t be right. She was fairly certain she hadn’t sent out invitations.
Speaking of which, what kind of person would choose to live here, much less plan to have a wedding in this place? Oh. A portal. She stared at it for a moment and then shrugged. After the week she’d already had… sure, why not.
“You’re here!” Sam toasted her grinning madly.
“Sam! Where in Oblivion is this? Why would we need Hagraven feathers, a giant toe, or holy water, to fix a staff? Why is my hair purple, and who, in the names of all the Divines, did I marry?”
He laughed. “I thought you might not remember your fist trip here! You had a big night. And you can go ahead and throw those feathers and things out. You see…” Sam said disappearing in an orb of purple light to be replaced by an eight-foot tall dremora in daedric armor. “I really just needed something to encourage you to go out into the world and spread merriment. And you did just that! I haven’t been so entertained in… I don’t know how long.”
“So, let me see if I’ve got this right, I spent nearly two weeks palling around drunk with a shape shifting dremora?” Alexa asked, trying to put all the pieces together.
“Not a dremora,” he chided his voice dropping an octave and turning sinister, “but Sanguine, deadric prince of debauchery!” Sanguine’s voice returned to Sam’s usual, pleasant and slightly inebriated tone, “Also, I'm not sure ‘palling around’ is the correct term.”
“We traded a goat we didn’t own, to a giant, for his toe, in order to fix a staff that wasn’t broken… I admit that I’m not sure what to call that,” she told him flatly.
“I call it one hell of a honeymoon!” he laughed, holding up his hand so that she could see the ring on his finger.
“You’re joking,” she whispered disbelieving.
He put his tankard down on the table, took her face between his hands, and kissed her.
Alexa would be willing to bet that there was nothing, in any world, quite like being kissed by the prince of debauchery.
“I am not joking,” he told her in a heated undertone. “Though it is rather funny.”
Kynareth forgive her but she had to ask. “Why?”
The daedric prince sobered slightly. “Look, Sikendra, you’re going places. I knew that when we met but turns out you’re also fun. I like you. So, I thought, better me than one of the others, right?”
She gave him a look of complete incomprehension.
“You know the markings on your back, right? The ones that indicate you’re a Grand Master, blah blah-blah. Do you know how rare those are?” he asked.
“I believe, at the moment, there are only five Grand Masters in all Tamriel,” she answered.
“That’s right. And the other’s, they’re elves. Old elves. But, you’re so much more than that… You’re dragonborn…”
“I’m what now?” she interrupted.
“Dragonborn. You know, like that Talos guy was. You’re the first of a new dragonborn bloodline, to be precise. That means you’re a real daughter of Akatosh. So, like I said, you’re going places. But, people like me, well they’re going to want to take advantage. Especially before you get it all figured out. Some of them have already had you running little errands, haven’t they? But once you know, once everyone knows, that you’re dragonborn then the dangerous ones will come out to play. When that happens it might help to have someone looking out for you a little more actively than Azura and her ‘watching you from the twilight’ or whatever it is she voyeuristically does. And, since I think you’re great the way you are, and you’d be a lot less fun if someone like Molag Bal or Namira got to you, I figured maybe I should get to you first… So I did, and here we are.”
“You married me to protect me from the other daedric princes?” she asked weakly, taking a seat at the table. “Was marriage really the only way to do that?”
“Well, no, but it was the funniest. What I wouldn’t give to have seen Mara’s face when she realized what was happening in her temple! Her priests, using her power, to bless a union between a daedric prince and a new dragonborn… Ah, good times!”
“Fuck me,” Alexa whispered, hitting her forehead gently into the tabletop a few times. She was going to have to avoid temples and shrines of Mara for a while.
“Oh, I already did,” Sanguine leered. “Totally worth it, by the way.”
“Thanks…?” she murmured dully, suddenly glad for her memory loss. If his kisses were anything to go by sex with Sanguine, while amazing, would leave one in serious danger of enthrallment.
She sat slowly back up and looked around her at the crowed of merrily drunken revelers and wonder if they were real people and, if so, how they had gotten to the Misty Grove. And why was she here again? Oh, right, the husband and the staff. Well, she’d found one, divines help her, what about the other?
“Please tell me your offer of a staff wasn’t just a euphemism?” she begged.
“Oh! Good one! Hadn’t thought of that... But no, the staff is quite real. My wedding present to you, along with the usual powers and concessions, marriage between gods requires, blah, blah-blah,” he tossed her a short staff that looked like a bright red rose. “A flower for you, my lovely wife. And you should probably go. It’s almost morning and you’ve got a family appointment to keep.”