She nearly knocked it over as her hand clumsily brushed over it. She sobbed quietly, fumbling at the walls eventually finding perchance a lantern with some oil in it. It was pitch black inside and she could hear the muffled sounds of bells ringing. He shoved her into the darkness and the bookshelf swung shut. He told her that she’d find things that wouldn’t make sense and he would tell her everything once the crisis was over. Her brother grabbed her and told her that she had to go in there and not come out until he came back for her.
#Skyrim in your shadow cracked#
The bookshelf creaked and cracked and slowly began to open.
She let him be after that and just watched in fearful silence. He turned and the look on his face was stone and solemn. What was there that could possibly help them? He started at the book shelf and she yelled at Robert not understanding why he’d want to look for a book at a time like this. He took her to her mother’s old study, why, she didn’t know. The city was under attack by pirates and corsairs, she heard her brother saying while her head swam at the sudden shock of what was happening. Alayne opened her mouth to say something, but he cut her off, and grabbed her by the hand and said she had to hide and that they’d killed father and most everyone at the docks. He must have run the horse half ragged to be looking like that, she thought. Her brother’s tunic was covered in blood and he was dirty and sweaty. She got up to walk over to the window, but before she could, her brother burst through the doors, the serving woman gasped and dropped the honeyed milk that she’d been bringing to Alayne. Strange, she remembered thinking, they never rang the bells at this time. Her day dreaming was interrupted by the sudden ringing of bells. Sometimes, he’d have new books for her to read, or a new dress… she hoped it was the former. It was late in the afternoon and she was day dreaming about what her father was going to bring home that day. She then walked down to the west wing of the estate as she would oft do to read in the library. It was the year she found out the truth and the lies…It was an unremarkable day as any to start with, she broke her fast with her father and brother before saying her goodbyes and seeing them off as they headed down to the docks toward father’s business. The year 188 was the year that changed everything.
(13 years earlier: The Sacking of Wayrest) Some ships would even go as far south as the Summerset Isles, or north to the frozen land of Skyrim. He had trade agreements with several notable houses from all over The Iliac Bay. Her father was a renowned merchant who had set his business up in the Wayrest docks. Sometimes she would play with the servant’s children, though she would never tell her father, he had strong opinions about mixing with peasants. She liked the idea of being a knight more than some swooning dolt. Left to her own devices growing up, she would frequent the estate's library wing quite regularly, where she would read tales about famous adventurers and gallant knights often ending with rescuing a beautiful lady or princess. She hated that idea, which often would annoy her father. She would be married off to some rich lord to curry favour with his family no doubt. Her brother Robert was 10 years her senior and was being groomed to inherit her father’s business and estate. Her mother had died giving birth to her, a fact that her brother would never let her forget, even if his resentment was unspoken, she knew it was always there. Born into a minor noble house in Wayrest in the 178 th year of the 4 th Era, Alayne was the youngest child of two children.