Chapter 1: Oblivion Dawns

I should have known that something was wrong when we reached the drawing room where I was meeting Ebel that day. The door was ajar, and it was darker than it should have been within.

Ebel was always very particular about the lighting in a room. He usually insisted that all windows were opened, and all candles were lit, to cast as much light as possible on whatever he was reading.

I hesitated as I reached toward the partially opened door, but turned swiftly back to Caroline, my bodyguard, when she grabbed my wrist.

Her eyes were narrowed, and she shook her head, drawing her blade without a hint of a rasp from its scabbard. Her lithe arm muscles flexed under her Blades armour as she held her katana in one hand, and moved me behind her and away from the door with the other.

I stood behind her, a lump of worry forming in my throat. I wished I had a katana in my hands like Caroline's, then dismissed the thought; I couldn't wield a sword. I'd likely cut myself if I tried.

If only I had my bow with me.

Bows were ladylike, acceptable. Bows were used by members of the court, to hunt, and to play at target practise.

But I didn't have my bow with me. There was no need for me to carry a weapon in the Tower. The Tower was safe.

Wasn't it?

I held my breath without realising it as Caroline reached forward, inhaled and crouched, and with the hand not holding the katana, gave the door a little push. It shifted inward, silently along the smooth tiles.

I ducked as well, but not so far that I couldn't see into the room over my protector's head. The curtains were drawn, and there was an orange glow coming from within the room, so some of the candles must have been lit.

Caroline moved her head minutely from side to side, scanning the room. I tapped her shoulder, then pointed over it, indicating the figure sitting in front of the unlit fireplace, almost hidden from view as the chair's back was facing us.

My bodyguard nodded and inched forward. I didn't know what to do. Was I supposed to follow her? And - what was going on? Why was Ebel sitting in a dark room, by himself, when we were supposed to be meeting here now, to spend the afternoon together and make small talk?

I stood up straight as I watched Caroline move into the room, but remained where I was, just inside the doorway. Now that I knew where he was, I could make out the top of his head – my betrothed, Ebel Septim - the shock of his thick brown hair made bloody in the dim orange light.

That's when I saw the other. There was another figure, in front of Ebel, cloaked in darkness. He was crouched down, so I could only see the top of a shadowed hood moving. I clapped my hand to my mouth, to muffle a scream I didn't know I was going to make.

I wasn't fast enough, and everything happened at once. The hooded man stood tall; a long dagger in his hand, which was dripping with something dark. The gaping blackness in the hood where I assumed there was a face fixed on me and I was frozen to the spot.

Caroline charged at the figure from the side, plunging her katana into his neck, and he dropped to his knees, gurgling. The dagger he'd been holding fell from his grip and clattered loudly on the tiled stone floor.

I hurried forward automatically, eager to be closer to Caroline, and to find out what was going on.

"No, Sarina! Stay back!" Caroline called, holding up a hand and taking her eyes off her kill only for a moment to caution me, before she cried out in anger and swung the blade in front of her, slicing the robed man's head from his shoulders.

I startled but my feet kept moving forward, and then I could see Ebel's two bodyguards, piled in the corner of the room; a mass of dark, glistening wetness trailing down them and catching the candlelight.

Caroline was crouching over the intruder she had just beheaded when I passed her, and she was searching through their robes. I let her be and dropped to my knees in front of Ebel.

This had to be a nightmare. He could not be dead. I felt wetness on my knees and knew that it had to be his blood, seeping into my dress. I ignored the feeling, reaching shakily for his hands, my eyes fixed on his soft features. There was a blade in his chest, pinning him to the seat, and his blood was everywhere, seeming to shudder on its own as the weak light of the candle flames flickered around us. His eyes were horrifyingly open; his jaw slackened, and on his forehead, someone had drawn in blood the symbol of a sun.

"Ebel, no," I moaned, resting my forehead in his lap. My throat felt tight enough to stop me from breathing, and I let go of a soft, gasping sob as tears sprung to my eyes.

I had not loved Ebel. I had tried – for years now – to locate that spark, that desire for another that the stories wrote of, and I was resolved to gain feelings for him before our wedding day, which was to take place on my eighteenth birthday in about two weeks hence. The man was over ten years my senior, and I respected and honoured him, even if he treated me like a child.

No, I had never loved him. But I didn't want him to die.

I was dragged to my feet by Caroline, who started urging us back toward the hallway.

"I have to get you out of here."

"But the others," I tried through a sob, but she cut me off immediately.

"The Tower has been compromised," she hurried us down the hallway and then stopped, in front of a life-sized painting of Ebel's father, Emperor Uriel Septim VII. I had always loved the painting, because Uriel was so young, but his bright blue eyes were exactly as they'd always been – full of knowledge and wisdom and power. Eyes that had always made me – everybody – feel safe.

I stared at those eyes for a moment, through a haze of shock, as Caroline reached forward and touched the blood-red Amulet of Kings that was painted proudly on the Emperor's figure. The painting slid to one side, with a whisper of wood against stone, and a tunnel leading into darkness revealed itself.

As I wondered if the tunnel had been there all this time, Caroline grabbed my hand and pulled us into the darkness, hitting a button with her closed fist once we were both inside. I heard, rather than saw, the painting move back into place, as Caroline seemed to hum for a moment, and then cast a small ball of light in her hand. It hovered in place there; a Candlelight spell. Her pace quickened and I had to run to keep my arm from being pulled off, my free hand bundling my skirts up so I could move fast enough without tripping over them.

We raced along the passage in silence, with Caroline's spell casting just enough light for us to see where we were placing our feet. I could barely keep my breath as we ran and turned, and I felt as though I was running through a haze, like none of this was real. I wanted to ask Caroline where we were going, then asked myself if it mattered. We'd reach wherever we were going soon enough.

If the Tower is compromised, I wondered, where in the Imperial City will be safe?

Caroline halted suddenly, and I slammed into her back with an "Oof!"

She turned and steadied me so I wouldn't fall, but then turned away quickly, holding her Candlelight high, and looking for something in what was at first glance, a dead end.

I panted heavily, trying to catch my breath, watching my bodyguard's every move. The bluish glow of her Candlelight spell made her look pale and ethereal and for a single, panicked moment, I wondered if we were both dead upstairs in the drawing room, and running through the tunnels of nowhere as ghosts.

She must have found what she was looking for because the wall in front of us shuddered, then shifted aside, just as the painting had done before. Caroline leapt through, then reached her hand back to me. I grabbed it, and held my skirts up with my other hand as I descended a couple of steps, into what was unmistakably a cupboard. My bodyguard closed the wall behind us with another bash of her fist on a button inside the cupboard, and then opened the doors, dispelling her spell as she lead us out.

We were in the city prisons. My mouth went dry as I looked down a hallway of barred cell room doors. Caroline didn't explain, leading me wordlessly to one of the prison cells.

Her mouth formed a line as she looked into the empty cell before us.

"What...?" I began, but Caroline's hand shot forward and covered my mouth.

"Shh!" she hissed, fiddling with the front of her Blades armour, loosening the neckline and then pulling a long chain out from under it. At the end was a key.

I was so afraid that I stayed silent, and watched, as my eyes grew accustomed to the gloom of the cells. Caroline unlocked the ancient-looking padlock on the cell door and ushered me inside.

I backed against one of the side walls of the cell, watching Caroline closely as she followed me in. I didn't understand any of this and I didn't know what I'd do if she planned on just leaving me here. Probably cry.

Once we were both inside, Caroline motioned for me to join her as she hurried to the back wall of the room. I breathed a sigh of relief, realising that there must have been another tunnel in this room.

Funny place for an escape route, I thought. Though, who would think to look in a prison?

She reached underneath the uncomfortable-looking straw and fur bed along the back wall, and extracted a sack.

"What are we doing, Caroline?" I asked in a whisper.

"Please, my Lady," she remembered my title, but spoke in a hush as she hurriedly undid the ties on the sack and opened it wide. "There is no time to explain. You must get out of those clothes."

She handed me a rough-spun tunic and scratchy-looking leggings. I stared down at them in my hands.

"Wh-?"

"Please don't ask me why," Caroline retied the sack, and thrust it under the bed again. "I have sworn to protect you, and in order to do so, you must trust me."

"I'm to become a prisoner?" I asked her, still not moving to change. I trusted Caroline, but this was absurd! "How will that save us?"

Caroline's eyes flashed and she looked frustrated, as she hurried back toward the cell door and peered out. After a beat, she hurried back to me.

"Turn," she commanded, turning me before I could react, and I felt her start to unfasten the ties at the back of my dress.

"Caroline!" I hissed, confused.

The Blade sighed. "My Lady, the Tower is compromised," she whispered, but I could tell her jaw was clenched. "If the Septim family is the target, what do you think they will do if they find you?"

"I am not a Septim," I grated back in a hushed whisper. "Not yet. Not ever, now," I added morosely.

Caroline had finished with my dress ties, and dragged the silken material from my shoulders, exposing my back to her. I shivered in my smalls; the stalls were icy and I hadn't realised how much warmth there had been in my apparently lightly spun dress.

"Do you think they will care?" she hissed, as she reached around me for the tunic I was holding and took it back from me. "You have been part of the Septim household since you were ten! Everybody knows who you are! Arms up!"

I did as she commanded automatically, wondering why anyone would want me dead – but then, Ebel hadn't done anything wrong, and he had been killed...

My eyes welled up dangerously as the image of Ebel's glazed eyes swam in my vision. The bloody sun on his forehead blazed at me like a third, hateful, glowing eye.

"It doesn't matter that you were not wed yet," Caroline continued grimly, pulling the tunic over my head, and I shoved my arms through the arm holes. The tunic was shapeless, sleeveless and reached mid-thigh, made of a scratchy-feeling linen.

"Many who do not know you both assume – wrongly assume – that he did not wait, to consummate your union," she finished, somewhat angrily.

I turned back around to my bodyguard in shock, and felt the blood drain from my face. I held my chilled arms, watching through a blur of tears as she picked up my formerly fine, pale blue dress, which was soaked in places with the deep red of Ebel's blood.

Ebel had never touched me...how could anyone think such a thing?

"I trust you can manage the leggings," Caroline raced back to the cell door.

She was leaving me?

I paled. She was leaving me! I hurried to the cell door, grabbing the bars as she closed it on me, locking the padlock from the other side.

"Caroline!" I cried desperately, in a hushed voice. "Don't leave me here!"

My bodyguard's eyes softened, for just a moment. "Wait here. I will be back, I promise you. I must..." she trailed off, her eyes roving the hallway, then turned back to me very quickly. "Put the leggings on. Hide your shoes," she hissed. "If you are approached by anyone other than a Blade that you recognise, you must assume they are the enemy."

She withdrew something from a strap on her boot, and passed it to me. A silver dagger.

"I can't use this," I whispered, taking the blade with a shaking hand, my voice begging her to stay.

"I hope you don't have to fight anyone," Caroline shook her head. "But you must use it to cut your hair. They will have your description. Your hair will be part of that."

I nodded sadly at her, the tears slipping from my eyes. I was usually very protective of my hair, but I didn't feel like it mattered any more. I had been forbidden to cut it, on my mother's orders, and it was a mass of knee-length dark brown. It was currently plaited into several long, intertwining braids that trailed down my back, thicker than a man's arm and wound with white and yellow flowers. Not exactly in keeping with the prisoner guise.

Caroline nodded at me once, seemingly more satisfied, then started to run back down the hallway.

"I will return."

I stayed at the cell door, one hand gripping a bar and the other, the silver dagger, at its hilt. I wanted to call out thank you, or stay safe, to my bodyguard, but I couldn't find my voice.

I backed away from the bars, and retreated to the bed, sitting and staring at my hands. The silver dagger caught the only light coming into the room, from a small window, high up on the wall.

There was blood on my hands. Ebel's blood. I put the dagger down and rubbed my hands against the prisoner tunic I was wearing roughly, desperate for the blood to be gone. I looked at my hands again; a few dried stains remained. I felt an anger rising in me at the sight of my small, pale hands, and tried to use the anger to stop the tears that were still leaking down my face.

You stop this, Sarina, I chided myself. Stop being such a baby. People are dead. People are fighting and dying, and you're sitting here, alive and hidden, crying and useless.

The voice in my head carried my mother's tone, and I narrowed my eyes for conjuring her at a time like this. I had never been close to my mother, and I had never even known my father, for he'd died serving the Empire while I was still inside my mother's womb. My mother had always been strict, but she had become a hundred times worse with her rules and regulations, once Crown Prince Geldall, Ebel's oldest brother, had started talking to her about my becoming betrothed to Ebel. She had shipped me off to the Imperial City as soon as I was ten, to be raised by the Emperor's tutors and bodyguards, who would turn me into a lady fit for the Septim household. I had seen her once a year, every year on my birthday, and she had always been cold, calculating and snotty.

And then she had died, about a year ago, and I had inherited everything; the money, the house and lands in Skingrad; everything that had made me such a suitable match for the son of an Emperor.

I sniffed, wiping my eyes roughly with a hand as I picked up the silver dagger with the other. I grabbed my braid and used a sawing motion against it with the blade, knowing that it was uneven, as I cut it below my shoulders. The hair unwound and I crouched down and stowed the long plait under the bed, shoving the sack of prisoner clothing in front of it. Short curls sprang around my face as I moved. Spurred on by the recklessness of cutting my hair and knowing how much it would have angered my mother, I kicked off my slippers, and put on the leggings Caroline had given me. They were tight-fitting, and hugged my hips and my ankles, but I felt slightly warmer for them.

As I was wondering what to do with the silver dagger, I heard a noise from the other side of the cell, and hurriedly looked at the door as fear leapt into my throat.

"Psst!"

Someone was calling me - had noticed Caroline leaving me here?

If you are approached by anyone other than a Blade that you recognise, you must assume they are the enemy.

I nodded at the reminder of Caroline's words, but edged toward the cell door, the silver dagger behind my back, as I tried to swallow my fear and reminded myself that I was locked in, and that assassins wouldn't 'psst' at me. Perhaps it was another member of the Blades, or one of the Princes, trying to find their way to the right cell to escape through.

The hard, rocky dirt floor of the cell felt cool and sharp against my bare feet but my head and neck felt significantly lighter, with the weight of all that hair gone.

"Pssst!" the noise came again. I peered through the bars, grabbing one with my free hand, and looked both ways down the hallway.

Nobody was there.

"Would you look at that," a leering male voice spoke, in a hiss of a whisper.

I startled and realised that the voice was coming from another prisoner. Across the hallway and down one cell, I could see a man – Dunmer, perhaps, though it was difficult to tell in the wan light. I stepped back from the cell door, but the prisoner must have seen enough. I felt a flush creep up my cheeks.

"A little Imperial girl in an Imperial cell," he sneered a chuckle. "They sure don't discriminate, do they, pet?"

I stayed silent, but watched him from the shadows, too afraid to move. If I moved, he'd know I was still right there.

"I bet the guards give you some special treatment, before the end," he jeered. "The guards always treat the pretty ones real nice."

I had to take another step back. Why was he saying such things?

"Oh, don't go, little pet," he crooned, the jeer still in his tone. "There is nowhere to go," he barked a laugh, growing louder and more manic as he continued. "You're going to die in here, just like the rest of us! Die!"

I was gripping the silver dagger in my hand so tight that my fingers hurt. I continued to take slow, measured steps back away from the cell door; tried to block the prisoner's insanity from my mind.

Why was I so afraid of him, I wondered? There was no way he could get to me, even if he could somehow get out of his own cell. Caroline had the key to my cell, and she had promised she would come back to me. Everyone else was –

I was far back in the cell, near the bed, when a great, looming shadow stepped into the light of the hallway, and began fiddling with the lock of my cell door.

I clamped my hand over my mouth again and muffled my scream - in time, this time. That wasn't Caroline! What was I going to do?

My scream swallowed, I placed my palms and back against the wall and stood, motionless, a part of me insisting that if I didn't move, he couldn't see me.

When the cell door open, the figure hurried into the room, and three other figures hurried in after him.

"This way," the voice – male – called.

I recognised the armour instantly, as soon as I saw it. He was a Blade.

"Thank the Gods," I whispered as I let out a breath and raced forward.

In a flash, three katana blades were at my throat.

I screamed and held up my hands, the silver dagger falling to the floor and clattering a few times against the rocky surface.

"Why is there a prisoner in this cell?" one of the Blades, the female of the group, asked angrily. I knew this Blade; she was the Captain, the woman in charge of the Emperor's safety. Captain Renault, her name came to me swiftly.

"Stand aside, Captain," a regal voice spoke from behind the three Blades, and then the Emperor himself put his hand on the Captain's outstretched arm, insisting that she lower it.

She did, as did the other two Blades.

"There has been no mistake," the Emperor added.

"The guards are under strict order to leave this cell empty," one of the male Blades, a very large, but young, Imperial said.

I was frozen to the spot. I wanted to speak in my defence but I was also suddenly terrified that nobody recognised me. That Caroline's idea of masking my identity was working too well. That if I moved, at all, they wouldn't hesitate in chopping my head off, then and there, just like Caroline had to Ebel's assassin.

But then there was the Emperor, reaching his hand out to me. "You must sheath your weapons," he said with confidence, and I took his hand with my own quaking one. "You all know this young woman."

"Thank you, Your majesty," I breathed a sigh of relief. He did recognise me. Of course he did. Septims always saw to the truth of matters. It was part of their Gift.

He let go of my hand once I was steady on my feet once more, and the third Blade, a Redguard, asked questioningly. "Lady Passero?"

"Yes," I nodded, as I stooped down to retrieve the silver dagger Caroline had given me.

"But, Caroline...?" the young Imperial Blade muttered.

I nodded again, turning to face him. "She went to see if she could help. She promised to return."

"There isn't any time for this," Captain Renault said, though there was less of an edge to her voice now. "Baurus, hurry up. And Sire, if you please, you must change," she hurried to the bed and crouched down, just as Caroline had done, and retrieved the sack of prisoner clothing.

"Yes, Captain," the Redguard Blade – Baurus – turned back to one of the walls, searching for something, much like Caroline had during our race through the tunnels out of the Tower earlier.

"My sons," the Emperor said, beside me, and I turned to look at him. He was watching Baurus. Those great, blue eyes, usually brimming with confidence and intelligence, were at that moment so full of sadness. "None of them are here."

I felt the tears welling in my eyes again at the sombre, somewhat hopeless sound of his low voice, and shook the tears away, wiping my palm across my eyes swiftly. "No, Sire."

Emperor Uriel turned his gaze to me, then. "Do you know if Ebel-?"

I shook my head, as the tears threatened to spill again. "I'm sorry, Sire. We – Caroline and I, I mean – we found him."

The Emperor drew in a sharp breath. "You were with him?"

I shook my head again, this time letting the tears fall, and told him through a sob. "Caroline killed the assassin," I said. "But we were too late," I clenched my eyes shut as I lowered my head. Despite all else, I didn't want the Emperor to see my crying. Would he wish the assassin had taken me, so his son might have lived?

I felt a hand on my chin, and opened my eyes; the Emperor looked straight at me. "I have known that this day would come," he said, and through the sadness, there it was; the command, "though I did not realise it would be now, or that I would lose my sons, as well."

I sniffed and said nothing, and he continued. "When I saw you were here, I knew it must be time."

"Time?" I echoed in a small voice. Before he could explain, Captain Renault was at the Emperor's side, and handed him a long, grey prisoner tunic.

At the same moment, Baurus must have found the lever, because the wall he was at started moving sideways.

"Sire," Captain Renault said. "Please, hurry. Put this over your clothing. We must go, now."

"Lady Sarina is escaping with us," Uriel spoke up as he shrugged the prisoner tunic on. It didn't entirely cover his robes, but I guessed that there wasn't enough time for him to change properly. It would have to do.

"Yes, Sire," the Captain acknowledged him, but not me. She stepped through the tunnel, holding her hand out for the Emperor, and he took it as he climbed through. The young Imperial Blade followed him, and the third Blade, Baurus, held out his hand to me.

"But," I said hesitantly, looking at the cell door. "What about Caroline?"

Baurus stepped back into the cell and took my hand, dragging me through. "She knows where to meet us, if she makes it out of the Tower alive."

Caroline, where are you?

I took his hand. Once we were inside the tunnel, Baurus sealed it off, hitting a lever on an inside wall. Once it was closed, he pushed an enormous rock that was to the side to cover the escape route entirely. I felt dumb, standing there uselessly, and turned, to see the other two Blades and the Emperor, hurrying down a set of stairs. The Captain, in the lead, had produced a ball of light on her palm, just like Caroline had done while we were escaping.

Baurus grabbed my hand as he raced past me, and I ignored the stabbing pain of the rough stone on my bare feet and hurried to keep up.

The tunnel was hewn out of solid rock, and lead to what looked like an older part of the Imperial City – perhaps the sewers, though the water rushing through it must have kept any refuse from stinking up the place. It was a little lighter here – light enough for Captain Renault to extinguish her Candlelight - but the Blades didn't slow our escape. As we ran, I wondered how many times they'd used these tunnels, if they knew their way so well? Perhaps smuggling people out of the Imperial City wasn't such an uncommon thing?

Baurus' grip was unfaltering, his large hand wrapped securely around my wrist as he pulled me here and there. My feet slipped once, and he turned with a speed I'd not have thought the large man capable of, catching my other arm and steadying me.

"You must take care, my Lady," he said, no edge to his voice, only urgency. "They cannot follow us the way we came, but there is more than one entry point to the tunnels."

He started running again, and I leaped after him, my feet splashing in a pool of water before hitting the smooth, weathered rock of the path.

"It will not take them long to realise where we have gone," he added in a mutter.

I concentrated on keeping my footing, instead of answering. Baurus came to a halt once we reached the next room, and I stopped just in time, managing to not run into him. In front of us, the other two Blades and the Emperor were standing in front of a large, barred door. The Imperial Blade was shoulder-charging the door, trying to force it open.

"I don't understand," the Captain was saying. "This gate has never been locked!"

"Well, someone locked it. The mechanism is on the other side!" the other Blade was saying, through clenched teeth.

I looked around the room, as the "clang!" of the Blade's armour against the bars of the door rang out through the chamber. It was a tall section of tunnel, with stairs leading back behind us, and moss hanging down the walls. In the corner of one wall was a small hole, where the rock had fallen away from it.

I tugged on his arm. "Baurus?"

The Blade had been about to join his fellow in trying to take down the door with brute strength, but turned back to me swiftly; his eyes fierce.

I pointed to the small hole in the wall. "If you could lift me up there, I could fit through. Unlock the door from the other side?"

Baurus looked at where I had indicated, and his eyes widened when he turned back to me. "Come on!"

We ran to the wall and Baurus cupped his hands in front of him. I placed my hands on his shoulders, and my foot in his hands, and he lifted me with little effort. I grabbed for the hole in the wall and tried to lever myself up, then felt hands on my legs, pushing me upwards.

I didn't need to pull myself through the hole at all – Baurus practically launched me through it. I gripped onto the stone wall on the other side, and climbed down in a leap, landing with a wince. I was sure my feet were bleeding by now – and I wished I'd grabbed my shoes before we'd left the cell, but Caroline had insisted I hide them in case I was found. They were too fancy; too fine – delicate slippers with barely a sole to them. They probably wouldn't have done me any good, come to think of it.

I raced for the locking mechanism that was beside the door, as the Blades and the Emperor all stood back from it, their eyes on me. I happened to glance at them as I dashed past the barred doorway - and stopped in my tracks.

I screamed - but not quickly enough.

Cloaked figures launched themselves from the top level of the chamber that the Blades, and the Emperor, were trapped in. They took the young Imperial, whose name I had never known, down in a single strike. The Captain and Baurus both turned, immediately backing to form a defence around the Emperor.

"Open the door!" the Captain screamed at me.

I scrambled for the latch.

"No!" the Emperor's voice boomed, and I hesitated at the force behind it. "Do not open that door!" he commanded.

"Sire!" the Captain called, screaming as she took down one of the – it must have been ten or so – cloaked assassins. They were ridiculously outnumbered.

"Open that door and we all die here," the Emperor called to me, his back pressed up against the bars, as he watched his two remaining bodyguards take down assassin after assassin.

"Sire, if I don't, you'll die!" I cried.

With a sickening crunch, the Captain's head was smashed by one of the assassins, who was wielding a mace, and she fell.

"No!"

I raced toward the barred door, as the previously mace-wielding assassin leaped upon the Emperor, and drove a long blade into his belly. The blade went straight through the Emperor's body, the tip of it protruding through the bars and into the room I was in.

I screamed again as the Emperor's body slid down the bars, and for a moment, I saw the assassin standing over him, victorious, before his head was taken off by Baurus' blade. The Redguard swung around again, immediately, back into action on the last assassin, who was trying to flee the room.

I sank to my knees by the barred door, reaching through and grabbing the Emperor's hand, as he tried to turn toward me.

"No," I gripped his hand, and felt those useless tears falling from my eyes again, as I watched the Emperor gasp, the light in his eyes flickering brightly.

"I knew," he panted, his eyes finding mine as he brought his other hand up to clasp mine. "As soon as I saw you, Sarina, I knew."

"I'm sorry," I cried. I didn't know what he was talking about, but it felt like it was my fault.

His words were kind. "You have nothing to be sorry for," it looked like every breath took great effort. "It was destined that you be with me in my final moments," he continued. "And that thought brought me a small comfort," he removed one of his hands from mine, and reached around his neck.

"Sire, please," I sobbed, leaning my forehead on the bars, as the tears trickled down my cheeks and splashed on his shoulder. "Hold on. Baurus will be back soon. He'll know what to do."

He placed something on our clasped hands, and I opened my eyes. I let out a gasp in between my sobs as he put the object between my fingers and then patted my hands deftly.

The Amulet of Kings. He'd removed the Amulet, with it's great blood-red stone of Alessia shining in the muted light of the tunnels, and had put it in my hand.

Before I could speak, he did.

"Sarina," he said, though his voice was very quiet, and very ragged, now. "The future of the Septims is in your hands. Only you can save us. This I knew to be true, a long time ago. Now, listen carefully..."

I listened, while he took a long, shuddering breath.

"You must go to Jauffre, at Weynon," he rasped. "There is..."

His eyes began to flicker closed, and I squeezed his hand with both of mine, and the Amulet between us. "Yes, Sire? I must go to Weynon? And then what?"

Uriel Septim's eyes fluttered open again, the blueness in them still bright, despite the light fading from them at each moment. "Jauffre will help you find him."

"Who, Sire?"

"My son," he breathed, quietly. "Find him. Save him. Give him the Amulet."

He spoke so quietly that I was not certain I had heard him correctly. "Your son? You mean...you have another son?"

The Emperor nodded, his hand gripping my two and the Amulet with what strength he had left. "And I am sorry, but you must close them now, my child," he coughed weakly. "You must close the jaws of Oblivion."

"Oblivion?" I repeated dumbly.

He didn't answer me, or acknowledge my question, and I doubled my grip on his hand as I felt it slipping.

"Sire? Sire!" I called, as the Emperor went limp. I tried to press myself through the bars, to hold him up, but the Emperor's body slid a little further down, and his hands fell out of my reach.

I leaped up, raced to the locking mechanism and hit it, hearing a clang of metallic hinges letting go as I raced back to the opening gate. The Emperor slid further as the door opened, and was lying flat on the ground by the time I reached him, the horrible assassin's blade still protruding from his belly.

It was at that moment Baurus rejoined us, covered in blood, slowing to a stop as he saw us.

I ignored him, kneeling beside the Emperor now, grasping the sword in both of my hands and withdrawing it from him, throwing it aside in anger and it clanged against the stone of the tunnels as I cried. "Sire! You...you can't!"

Baurus was behind me then, and dragged me to my feet. "I wasn't fast enough. The Emperor has fallen."

I turned into Baurus and buried my face in his armour, the tears flowing freely again. I'd had no idea I could cry so much and a part of me wondered that I hadn't dried out completely yet.

Baurus let me cry against him only for a moment, offering no words of comfort, but just laying an arm around my shoulder. I was grateful for that because I felt like I would collapse.

"I see he has given you the Amulet," he said finally, his voice sounding deeper, thicker, and I knew he was trying to stop himself from crying, as well.

I withdrew from him, looking down at the Amulet clasped in one of my hands. I had forgotten about it.

"Yes."

Baurus nodded, then stepped past me, bowing down on one knee beside the Emperor, the respect evident in every move he made. "What did he say to you?"

I watched as he straightened the Emperor's body, and leaned forward to close his eyes gently.

"He...he told me to go to," I hesitated, trying to remember it through the haze. "Weynon. Someone called Jauffre."

I heard Baurus suck in a breath at the name, but he didn't take his eyes off his fallen Emperor. "What can Jauffre do about this?"

I paused. "You know him?"

I saw Baurus nod. "He was the Grandmaster of the Blades. He's retired."

"He..." I restarted. "The Emperor said Jauffre...could help me find his...his son," I said quietly.

Baurus did turn back to me this time, his eyes sharp. "His what?"

I shook my head. "I don't know," my voice wavered. "He said he had another son. That he..."

Baurus rose to his full height, quickly, and towered over me. "Are you telling me that there is another Septim?" he seemed hopeful, not furious, as I had first thought he was. "And that Jauffre knows where he is?"

I nodded slightly, before I managed a squeak. "The Emperor seemed to think so," I answered.

Baurus snapped into action, rushing to one side of the room and crouching down for a moment, before returning to me.

He held out a pair of boots. "They were Captain Renault's. They will do for you. Quickly."

He pushed them into my arms when I didn't take them immediately. "Do I have to dress you?"

I flushed at the thought and slipped my aching feet into the boots hurriedly. They were probably two sizes too big for me, but they were better than the cold, hard ground.

"Now," he indicated the door. "What are you waiting for? Go!"

I looked at the barred door I'd just come through. "What am I supposed to do?"

"Exactly as the Emperor asked you," he answered quickly. "Go to Jauffre, quick as you can. And keep that Amulet safe!"

I looked up into Baurus' warm, brown eyes, imploringly. "Can't you come with me?"

Baurus looked somewhere between frustrated and amused. "I have to stay here, and guard the Emperor's body, until my company find me," he started pushing me toward the door.

"But I'm..." I started, exasperatedly, struggling out of his grip and turning back to him, "I'm useless! I can't fight!"

Baurus let me go. "Then it's a good thing the Emperor didn't ask you to fight for him!"

I opened my mouth to shout back at Baurus, but no words came as I realised that the Blade was right. The Emperor had given me a simple task; find a man called Jauffre.

I could do that.

"How do I get to Weynon?" I asked Baurus.