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A week has passed since Bishop and Pjetur left for Vizemundsted.

The sun was warm on Anais' face as she laid there in the long grass with Killian and Karnwyr. He was giggling animatedly at her when she blew raspberries on his exposed stomach. Killian squirmed and tried to shuffle away from her, kicking out his feet and waving his fists in the air. Karnwyr sneezed as a butterfly landed on his nose.

"You are so good with him," Solvi commented with a sweet smile. Anais agreed to accompany her foraging for ingredients at Anais' behest. Her mother was a healer and taught Anais which plants and mushrooms were alchemically lucrative and which were poisonous and lethal. Solvi always had a nurturing nature and became the town's midwife in Anais' mother's absence. Since then, Solvi looked to Anais for the healing arts in restoration magick and alchemy.

Anais smiled and gathered her son in her arms after his fit of laughter died down. Killian was growing so big and Anais surmised he would be tall and brawn like his father. Curiously, she wondered at his magick adeptness. Would her son follow her family's affinity for magick, or curse it much like his father's Nord counterpart?

"Until he becomes a teen," Anais chuckled. "Knowing his father, he won't be so agreeable."

Solvi sliced off a couple of sprigs of lavender and put them in her basket. "Such are all boys that age. Do you remember all the trouble you and Pjetur would get in? Running around like you were on the lamb!"

The memory of her and Pjetur stealing a bunch of carrots from Kunnari's farm came to mind. The Bosmer farmer was so irate, chasing after them with a broom waving high in the air, following their howling laughter out of town.

"You're right, and I will admit that most of the trouble we got into was Pjetur's fault," Anais added.

Killian rolled onto his stomach and raised his head up at her, watching the two women with wide, curious eyes.

"That lavender will be perfect for healing salve once it's dried," Anais pulled Killian up and set him between her outstretched legs. "Mixed with juniper berries, sage, and blue mountain flower, it makes a wonderful healing salve."

Solvi quietly mumbled off the list to remember them. "Okay, got it."

Killian squealed, and Anais' attention returned to him. He managed to grab a fistful of grass in his hands and was about to put it in his mouth. She gripped his wrists and gently forced his fingers open to release the grass before he could make a mess of himself. She laid him down as Karnwyr outstretched against her leg, his amber eyes watching the baby intently.

"Do you think Bishop and Pjetur will make it back soon?"

Anais furrowed her brows at her friend's ominous tone but carried on with wiping her son's hands of dirt. "Of course. I imagine that they are on their way back as we speak."

A shadow came over Anais.

"We don't have much time then."

"Time for what?" Anais questioned, turning her head to look up at her friend. Shouting came from the town. Karnwyr raised his head and brandished his teeth in a snarl.

She heard a shuffling, and then a sharp cry from Killian. She whipped her head towards her son, seeing the black fur-lined armor of Yngvarr standing afore them. He was flanked by several of his men with their swords and their axes drawn.

He held Killian in his arms and smiled maliciously down at her. "Time for you to go, Dragonborn... or should I call you Ruma?"

Anais sat stock-still. Horrified at the predicament and being at the mercy of the traitorous man before her. She had a dagger in her boot, under the skirts of her dress but she couldn't risk harming her own child to get to Yngvarr. Her only hope was Solvi, though she was a novice with a blade but could find someone to help her.

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