Honor of the Dragonborn

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Later that night when Vilkas and Krinna retired to their bedroom, Vilkas noticed Krinna looked lost in thought. He realized she'd been doing that more than normal this entire past week.
"Something troubling you love?" Vilkas asked, gently placing a hand on her shoulder. Krinna blinked and gave a bitter chuckle in response. "Besides the obvious," he amended, chuckling as well, despite the gravity of the situation.
"Yeah," Krinna sighed, "my damn visions."
"You had another one?" Vilkas asked in concern.
"A few weeks ago," she admitted, "but it wasn't bad or foreboding like the last few, so I didn't think much of it at the time... and you were busy overseeing the roof repairs with Blaise, so I never got around to mentioning it," she explained.
"What was it?" Vilkas asked curiously. He watched as her eyes unfocused, and he recognized the expression she wore when she tried to remember or make sense of the visions she occasionally had.
"It was our kids, and our family... here... and they were all fine... just images of them growing up... things were good, peaceful... at least I thought..." she shook her head and her eyes focused back on Vilkas. Her expression was confused and frustrated. "I don't understand," she continued, "why I'm having these visions, but none that warned me about those damn cultists, or Miraak, or whatever it is we're about to go off and find in Solstheim."
"You said this evening you had a feeling we'd be gone a while... what does your intuition tell you?" Vilkas asked gently.
Krinna thought for a moment before shrugging. "That this is going to be a long, rough trip." She shook her head and tried to think back on the visions again. She stayed looking lost in thought for several moments and she began rattling off details. "Blaise going off to the mages' college but eventually coming back to be a battle mage with the Companions... Lucia joining the temple of Kynareth and becoming a healer, there and at Jorrvaskr... Sofie and Jergen become Companions along with... there are two more children I don't recognize but I see them growing up too..." her eyes focused again and she looked at Vilkas curiously. "What color hair did your parents have?"
"Well," Vilkas began thoughtfully, he would have thought this a very odd and random question if it weren't for the fact he had already guessed why she was asking... "I assume Farkas and I got this," he pointed at his hair, "from our father, because, I can't remember, but I think our mother had blond hair... it might have been red though..."
Krinna nodded and tried to picture her vision again. "The children I'm seeing could definitely be Farkas and Lydia's then," she said with a sigh. "I think they're twins... they'll be Companions too... strong warriors... battle mages I think..." she shook her head. "But still, none of this tells us anything about what's going on now, no Miraak, nothing."
A sudden grim thought occurred to Vilkas. "Are you and I anywhere in this vision love?"
Krinna's eyes snapped to his, her eyes wide as she realized what he was getting at. Her eyes quickly unfocused as she tried to remember. Several moments later she shook her head and answered. "No, but neither are Farkas and Lydia, or any of the others... it's only the children."
Vilkas let out a sigh of relief. It wasn't necessarily an omen that they wouldn't be coming back... and at least if it was they'd likely be going together... but he still didn't like it.
***
Krinna and Vilkas enjoyed breakfast with their family and gave their children an extra hug before they set off for Windhelm.
The note Krinna found on the cultists had directed them to take a ship called the "Northern Maiden" from Solstheim, so that was where they planned to start. They got to Windhelm late in the evening and got a room at the Candlehearth inn for the night.

Krinna watched as an ash clouded island got closer in the distance as she approached over dark waters.
There were groups of enslaved people toiling day and night to build structures that would become temples to Miraak...
Then her vision shifted. Several images flew by in rapid succession; Krinna hardly registered what she was seeing, but there were distinctive emotions with each scene... there was confusion, anger, fear, sorrow, irritation...
The rapid succession of images stopped suddenly, showing a grotesque mass of green/black tentacles covered in eyes. Krinna recognized that daedra...
"You didn't think you were the only one did you?" Hermaeus Mora asked in amusement. "He was the first... you are the last... and you will both live or die by my decision, Dragonborn..."
Then the daedra's laughter faded and the images began flashing by again, too fast to register but with distinct emotions... disgust, fear, guilt, anger, excitement, relief, joy...
Suddenly Krinna felt a gut-wrenching pain that coursed through her whole body, it felt like a sword being thrust through her abdomen again and again. She felt her body trying to wake up and the vision began to fade. The last thing the vision showed as she gasped for breath was a comfortable hearth fire, and the feeling of pure joy.
Then everything was dark and she almost began to panic.
"You're alright love," she heard Vilkas's soothing voice. Her surroundings slowly came back to her and she felt Vilkas gently holding her shoulders as she gasped for breath. "You're alright, I've got you." Vilkas began to rub her back and Krinna's panic faded. "We're in Windhelm, planning to leave for Solstheim in the morning," Vilkas reminded her gently. Reality began coming back to her; they were still in Skyrim. Vilkas handed her a washcloth and Krinna accepted it with a grateful nod. She wiped her face while she tried to get her breathing under control.
"Shit," Krinna finally grumbled, still breathing heavily. "I know I wanted more information, but I didn't want that..."
"Sounds like that was a bad one," Vilkas commented worriedly, still rubbing her back and shoulders.
"Yeah," Krinna nodded. She relayed the details that she could recall, and Vilkas held her in his arms, listening intently. Vilkas's expression told her he obviously didn't like the sound of running into Hermaeus Mora again, but he really looked worried when she told him the end with terrible pain giving way to happiness... Krinna was worried too. She couldn't tell if the hearth fire her vision ended with was from Jorrvaskr, their own home, the Hall of Valor in Sovengarde, or somewhere else altogether, but with the pain she'd felt she thought Sovengarde seemed most likely.
"Well all that could mean any number of things," Vilkas said. He was obviously trying to sound reassuring, but his grim expression told Krinna he was thinking the exact same thing she was about the end of her vision.
"But..." he continued, placing a gentle hand to the side of her face and looking lovingly into her eyes, "worst case scenario: Sovengarde awaits."
"Hopefully," Krinna sighed. She closed her eyes and leaned tiredly into his touch. Vilkas put both arms around her again and gently pulled her to his chest and held her. "Hermaeus Mora has his own personal plain of Oblivion," she reminded him grimly.
"True," Vilkas agreed, "but ending up trapped in Apocrypha wouldn't result in pain giving way to happiness," he pointed out, "so let's take that as a good omen for now, and try to get a little more rest, huh?" Vilkas suggested as he gently stroked her hair.
"Yeah," Krinna sighed against his chest. Vilkas slowly laid back down and Krinna shifted to stay snuggled against his chest. "Thank you Vilkas," she said sincerely.
"Of course love," Vilkas replied with a gentle kiss to her forehead.
***
The next morning Krinna got determinedly out of bed and Vilkas followed. They found the ship, the "Northern Maiden" at the docks without any trouble. One of the dock workers directed them to the ship and told them to speak to Gjalund Salt-Sage. The trouble came when they found him...
"If you're looking for passage to Solstheim, too bad. I'm not going back there anymore," the blond man declared as soon as they stepped onto the small ship.
"Are you the captain of the Northern Maiden?" Krinna demanded. Vilkas wasn't surprised she sounded irritable.
"Sure, yeah... That's me. Why? Who sent you?" The Nord asked nervously.
"I was attacked by some cultists who came here on your ship," Krinna answered angrily.
"Now hold on," Gjalund protested. "That wasn't my fault... I didn't know they were going to attack anybody. I don't even know how I got here!"
"How can you not know how you got here?" Vilkas demanded in disbelief.
"You sailed here," Krinna retorted irritably.
"It's hard to explain..." Gjalund shook his head.
"Try," Vilkas growled. Gjalund looked from Vilkas to Krinna with a startled look and took a deep breath before continuing.
"I remember those people with the masks coming on board, then... The next thing I remember, I was here and they were gone," he shrugged. "It's not right, losing whole days like that. There's been something strange happening on Solstheim for a while, but after this... I'm done. I'm not going back to Solstheim."
"Yes you are," Krinna replied firmly. "You're taking us to Solstheim." She spoke in a low, intimidating tone, but Vilkas could hear the anger had gone from her voice. Vilkas knew she recognized as well as he did that none of this was Gjalund's fault, and the poor man was terrified.
"Have you been listening to me?" Gjalund demanded frantically, "I'm not going back there!"
Krinna sighed and began rummaging in her pack. Vilkas winced a little as she pulled out a hefty coin purse; they weren't hurting for money at all, but he had always been more frugal than his wife.
"I'll pay double your usual rate," Krinna offered, holding the large coin purse for Gjalund to see. Vilkas knew they were getting somewhere now, he saw the shift in Gjalund's expression as he eyed the purse.
"Well..." he said slowly, clearly having an internal debate, "a man's got to make a living, after all..." he looked uneasily back to the sea and then back to Krinna holding the coin purse. "Fine," he said at last. Krinna tossed him the purse and his eyes widened at the weight of it. "We'll cast off immediately," he announced.
Krinna sighed, clearly relieved that that had worked.
"How much was that?" Vilkas asked quietly as he and Krinna found a place to sit near the front of the ship.
"Five hundred," Krinna answered with a grumpy sigh. Vilkas just nodded, feeling a little relieved. If Ria kept it running like she usually did when they were gone, the small store Vilkas had started at their manor would easily make at least double that before they got home.
"Not too bad," he commented. He put an arm around his wife and settled in for the ride.