Skyrim V: Shadow over Markarth

Chapter Six: Cidna Mine

I stood outside of jail cell door as Urzoga unlocked my chains, but had another soldier unlock the cell door behind me. "This is a prison-mine, you will be working while you are here. If you make any trouble, I was told that your husband would pay for it. Is that clear?" I look at her in surprise, "What did you just say?"
"Ancano said you care little about what happens to you, so he said if you disobey, we will punish your husband or your brother." I kept my mouth shut. Inside, I was screaming. Not only was my husband and brother now in danger, what would happen to my children? Aaiden who still needed his mother to feed, and Lucia....
I push those thoughts out of my head as Urzoga pushes me through the cell door and locks it behind me. Threw the bars, the Orsimer woman grabs my wrist and says, "Ancano wants you to be kept in good use, but I can make you pay as much as your family if you try to make things difficult. Understand?" I slowly nod and she releases my arm, "Good." she turns her back and walks away from the cell door. I look down and realize under my feet was a scaffold. It lead down below to other cell doors where I could hear the sounds of pick axes against stone. I slowly walk down the scaffolding, my right hand against the wall. I was counting my breaths. It was going to be alright. It always was. My children were safe, we would reunite. At the bottom of it, in the middle of floor between all the cell doors, a Breton sat near a campfire. He was shirtless, with his long silver hair tied at his neck and hung down his back. He looked up at me and said, "Hhmmmmm, another new blood. What brings you here?" 
I look at him, my hands wringing together. "I'm looking for my husband, and brother...."
The Breton sat up, "Was your husband the Nord?" 
I swallow. "Yes, sir."
"There is no 'sir' here in Cidna Mine." The Breton said shaking his head, sadly.  
"Uraccen!" Said a harsh voice. The Breton made no move to get us as big, muscular orc walked in. He was shirtless, showing off the scars on his body, and his face was coated in white war paint. He took one look at me and then back at the man named Uraccen. "Is this her?"
"Well, she's the only woman in here, and if what her husband and brother said was true, then yes. This is the Dragonborn."
I stop, "Why did they tell you that?"
"Because we have been waiting for you." The orc said quietly. "You come with me, your husband is waiting for you." The orc trudges towards another cell, the bars open as if a bedroom. I look at him, "My husband is alright? And my brother?"
 The orc leads me to another room, where I stop in my tracks.   This cell was more like a bedroom than an actual jail cell. There was a small table with parchment and paper, and beyond it was a small bed. 
   In a seat, was an old Breton with white hair and a long mustache. He was sitting beside the bed, where my brother, Arodil, is laid on his stomach, with bright and bloody lashes on  his back. Sinding stood at the corner of the room and turned when the orc said, "I brought her here, Madanach."
"Thank you, Borkul." The old man said, nodding as the orc turned his back and stayed at the entrance of the cell. "Taniiaae." Sinding said. He was in a similar prison tunic such as I was, and he wrapped his arms around me as I clung on to him. "The children...." I whisper as he hushes me gently. "It's going to be alright, we will get out of this. I promise." he whispers. 
I look at Arodil on the bed. His tunic shirt was bloody and laid on the floor, showing his striped back. He looked up at me in pain glazed eyes. "Tanii....I told Serana for you not to come." I kneel down by my brother and look at his back. I shake my head, tears forming. "I promise I would help you, and I won't leave you, brother."  Arodil took my hand and squeezed it as the old man studied me. I turn towards him. "Thank you for lending your bed to my brother...." 
The old Breton smiles, "You look so much like her." 
 I look at him in surprise. "I'm sorry?"
 I slowly stand up and back away. 
The old man who was called Madanach stood up.  He bowed his head and said almost to himself, "I must remember she never knew who her mother really was..." He looked up and said, "My name is Madanach,  I was the King in the Reach for a short time. Now, they only call me the King in Rags.  He walked towards me as I almost backed into Sinding. My husband put his hands on my shoulders as Madanach turned towards me and said. "I had a daughter. The prize of my being. When I became the King in the Reach, I shed no blood other than the cruelest men's. But it was during one of those riots, a certain Thalmor officer had crept into my kingdom, and defiled my daughter. My princess Iaera, was left broken and sick by the cruel officer. He left her broken, but she carried the child he gave her. Iaera gave birth to a beautiful daughter. A daughter with dark hair like her mother, but the ears of her father." 
I stopped breathing, my fists clenched at my sides. Sinding gave my shoulders a squeeze. 
 "She was a beautiful little child, full of smiles and laughs, but always willing to listen to her old grandfather's stories." Madanach smiled briefly but then it disappeared. "When Ulfric and the nords came to take the city from us, I told Iaera to take herself and her daughter away. To run to a city she felt safe in. But I never had realized that two years ago, when Vulono, Altmer Agent had raped my daughter, he poisoned her with a serum that would take years to take effect. " His back was towards his cell wall. "It wasn't until after I was locked up in here, spared from execution, but now the King in Rags, did I learn that my daughter found solace in the home of Kodlak Whitemane. But it was then that I found out, she died from the sickness that plagued her body, but her little daughter still worked alongside the Companions." He turned to me. "That little girl is standing before me. My grand daughter. Taniiaae." 
  Tears trickle down my cheeks and I shake my head, my lip trembling. "That can't be....my mother worked for a Jarl, I helped her with chores...." 
"You're mother had to find a new name for herself when she fled Markarth, she found work in the city of Morthal as what she used to write. But she was never a peasant who was raped by a drunken soldier. She was a Reachwoman. The Forsworn Princess." 
 I look at him, my eyes wide.  "I don't believe you." I whisper and Madanach gave me a sad smile. "I knew this would be hard for you to accept. But you are the Reach Princess. Before you were imprisoned.....Ancano knew of you, and he wanted to capture you."  I look up. "But why?"
Madanach sat down and rubbed a hand over his eyes. "You are the Dragonborn, from what  I hear. And have stopped Skyrim from falling into destruction. You are valuable to the Thalmor because you are not afraid."
  I nodded, "I figured it would be that....but how can I tell if you are telling the truth?"
"Tanii..." Sinding whispered and I shook my head, "No, I'm serious. I don't remember you, and you can't just tell a fellow prisoner that they are their long lost grand child." 
 Madanach smiled. "I knew this would be a surprise. This has been in my family for generations. Your mother had one." He reached into his tunic and pulled out an amulet. I gasped.  The amulet was a jeweled pendant of a stag's head. Hircine's. My mother had one that I remembered she clutched unto when she died. Aela told me afterwards that she would keep it for me until I came of age, but I had forgotten it.
"You recognize this, don't you?" Madanach said, a gleam in his eye.
I swallow. "A pendant of Hircine. My mother had....one. But I forgot about it honestly...until now." Sinding took my hand and I said, "What....what was my mother's role as princess of the Reach?"
Madanach his his pendant away and said, "As princess, she often sat in on court sessions with me. After she was soiled by Vulono, she prayed fervently to Hircine, to spare her daughter and make her a great warrior one day." 
  I felt sick and turned away and vomited. Sinding held my hair back as I retched. Madanach sighed. "I take it she asked for his favor too much." 
My hands grip my knees as I look back at him, a cold sweat clinging to the back of my neck. "My mother was a Daedric Prince Worshiper? Hircine?!"
Madanach nodded, "Most of the Reachman worship the old gods." 
"Hircine has been a plague to my side for over a year, and now its supposed to make sense?" I say, angrily. "My whole life, I knew of him from my shield-sister. My husband, was cursed by him when I found him. I chose the same life and all that ever came from his blessing was pain and suffering." Angry tears streamed down my eyes. "I suppose it makes sense now. My mother prayed for his blessing and now look at my life."
Madanach stood up and took my hands in his and said. "She prayed for his blessing to make a strong child, and from what I can see, he blest you with strength." I look at him, not knowing how to feel as he said. "Come, I want you to meet the others. What is rest of our clan."
.................................................................
Serana.