Gray Heart: A Skyrim Tale of Family

Chapter Four

Kedev sat by her mother, and pulled her hair in to braids, tying them to the back of her head with a small, blue-budded flowering vine. She twined the hair left over in to four loops, and wrapped them around the vine. Sareen turned herself toward her daughter and smiled, tilting her head ever so slightly. She looked beautiful, and with her face painted and her hair done, she had an extra touch elegance about her. Her high cheekbones and brow ridge looked less worn and aged, even though she was still quite young. Her already thick lashed and rosy eyes were heavily lined with black, and thin streaks of blue capped it all off.

Her bony and calloused hands, working hands, had been painted in designs with a soft shimmering blue, and appeared to have a clear glossy coat around the patterns, and looked kind and delicate, like she had never suffered poverty or hardship a day in her life. And now, with the help of Kedev, her deep black hair was shaped lovingly in to the perfect dressing. And there was her dress. It was a warmly lined thick fabric; a tight dark blue stomacher laced as tightly as it would go around her waist. The base dress was light blue, close the the color of the streaks on her eyes, and it had no shoulder or sleeves.

Long, fingerless gloves of the same fabric covered her arms to just below her shoulders, and a short frill was sewn to the top. It was the best she could buy with her earnings and stature, but it was still one of the most beautiful things she had ever seen. Kedev wore a dress of the same maker, green this time, full shouldered, lined a bit thicker, longer, and instead of a stomacher (Sareen said she was too young to be wearing one at fifteen) she had a worn brown leather belt, loosely tied around her hips. The front locks of her hair had been heated and curled, and a fine thin strap of leather was fastened around a curl.

They wanted to look their best for the wedding. Pure, virginal, innocent; the ideal image for a young bride. And her daughter. "You look beautiful.", they said simultaneously to each other, and giggled after. "Thank you.", Kedev smiled, brushing a stray lock of hair from her bright blue eyes. Her joy and happiness had not faded to angst and unprecedented anger with her growing, filling body as she entered her teenage years. She was still the cheerful bright sun in the still dreary fog that flowed throughout the city of Windhelm.

Oftentimes, when citizens were feeling down, and their last drought of happiness came from a bottle of strong drink, they would visit her in her home, spend an hour there, talking and laughing and soaking in the radiant blissfulness that made her glow about in a special way. Her behavior stood out like a white flower in an endless sea of charred forest, and for that, she and Sareen got by well enough. She had made friends with even the sourest of persons, given the exception of some of the more firmly planted of the cruel Dunmer tormentors of before.

But today was not about Kedev. Today was about about Sareen and Revyn, and their union. A number of their family and friends had gathered in Whiterun, and the Priestess' of Kynareth had permitted a blossom from the Gildergreen to be plucked and preserved as a wedding gift from most of the people there, as many of them were poor, like Sareen and Revyn. But a few, mostly the family of an old patient of Sareen's named Myra, were spectacular and lavish. Myra had been very sick as a child, as she was not of a normal birth.

It was a long and winding story that brought to her being. Her mother was an Imperial Noblewoman, who had not married by age thirty-one. Her father was an Altmer Nobleman, who was the least favored son of a high-up Thalmor General. The two families decided to make a marriage alliance. Both families thought that they were getting the better end of the deal, while thinking they had killed two bird with one stone, as neither family felt particularly proud of their children. But her mother and father fell in love, to the surprise of everyone they knew, and conceived three times before Myra, one involving birth.

Unfortunately, the firstborn child died before it turned four. But Myra survived. Myra was kept in health by Sareen most of the time, and her family payed a hefty sum, most of which went to her savings. The savings had been stolen by Gods knew who, but after the Empire regained control of Skyrim, they looked through old reports of crimes and problems, scrolling through every file or written document, and made sure that all crimes were repaid or caught again. When they could not find who had committed the theft, they paid her every last Septim, the whole 4,000.