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I woke up with a hairball lodged in my throat and the most beautiful creature in the world sleeping beside me. Her chest rose and fell with softly purred snores.

The bedroom curtains had been left open overnight to cool the heat of our passion, but by that forgotten arched portal crept gray dawn light to unfurl the midnight curtains of our time together, and awaken the colors of a world I had never before known. A world I dared not dream to be real where I met someone who truly understood me. Slowly the silver returned to her face-fur until gently she turned from its harshness, and towards me, her nose twitching in a silent irritation, the experience hidden from her waking memory forever — but I would remember.

I drew the blanket over her bare shoulder. A crossing of myself and a lunar priestess surely portended something in the tides of fate, but I banished such curiosity for I cared little for the world beyond that singular moment. I silently swore by her whispered breaths that whatever ley lines had drawn us together, I would not let her be unwound from me by the crashing shore of chance.

I don't know how long I lay there. For one such as myself who is only ever haunted by his dreams, I can only imagine that feeling is how it must feel to dream sweetly; but unlike the fortunate many, I knew full well how precious those fleeting moments were before the inevitable waking of the true world. Each lingering breath honeyed my nose with the savor of fresh lovemaking.

Her true name was Aiera and I was in love with her.

But the world did come. More specifically it came thumping on my front door. Cursing I staggered up and padded barefoot into my living room. I cast back the curtains and donned a musky undershirt that had been stewing on the floor. If only I could have aired out my brain matter so easily, standing had roused a skull-splitting headache in my forehead — though not my worst hangover by any means.

Unlatching the door, I was ready to unleash Dagon's wrath on the interloper, but to my surprise it was Benezia before me. She had traded her powdered Bosmer facade for that mercenary outfit once again.

She recoiled at the sight of me. "Berry, your face! What happened?"

I reached up and felt my cheeks. True, they had felt hot on waking as they sometimes do after a night of insobriety, but patting them I realized they were swollen a spongy thumb's width farther out than they should have.

"Merely an allergic reaction," I muttered, "I have some medicine I'll take in a moment."

"If you say so… my goodness you look awful. May I come in? I have important news and wanted to check how last night went with the prince."

I peeked back towards my cracked bedroom door. "Can't it wait? Just this once?”

"No. It's the news we were waiting for. From the top."

"Fine… fine. Just go to the balcony. We can talk privately out there."

I waved her in before scampering off to the kitchenette to forage for my allergy medicine. Without a doubt, it would be a double dose day. Over the dulled clinking of my spoon swirling full glass I heard Benezia cry out: "By Azura the smell! Were you washing old carpets before I came?”

She always had been a jealous old shrew.

Glass in hand, I hurried her onto the balcony. I directed her to a cushion at my checkered table and didn't bother to offer her a drink. Outside, the sun had brought light without heat and a cool breeze ran high over the city, light and twittering with birdsong from our great ovoid aviary.

I took my medicine in one shot — bitter green stuff — and it itched over the hairy lump in my throat. I hacked out a few coughs as my eyes adjusted to the brightness. "Regarding the prince… I fear I was unable to put a damper on his ardent spirit.”

"Fair enough. I know it was short notice, but he hasn't agreed to anything yet has he?

"Not on paper…no."

Her brow furrowed. "What does that mean?"

"It means he may have sworn a few blood oaths to battle the Mane of Senchal and his minions. Nothing irreparable."

"Almalexia’s mercy! And what were you doing during all of this?"

"Keeping it from going even further, I assure you! You know it's all well and good for you too bark at me, but you had to be there to understand the needs of the moment my friend —"

We both froze as the curtains swished and Aiera stepped through. Benezia's eyes narrowed to red slits, a hand drifting casually to where I knew she kept her dagger.

"My sweet," I blurted out, "just a moment more!"

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Aiera stepped over and presented me with a fresh water glass. "Berree coughed like a dog and worried us."

I accepted it, thanking her, and she tilted over on those stilt legs to give my cheek a nuzzle. Her eyes lingered from over my shoulder towards Benezia as though she'd spotted a stray animal crossing her dinner plate.

She turned her pink nosed face back to me. "We can talk later?"

“Anytime. Always.”

I wanted to hold her with me, but she sashayed off with a queen's confidence. I had to bite my finger as curtains settled behind her and I heard the front door click shut. The way she moved put a need in me to salve my hangover with a bit of the hair of the cat that bit me — or so the saying goes.

Benezia's jaw was likewise hanging open. "You've gone completely native."

I stood without meaning to. "And why the hell shouldn’t I? Are the people of Elsweyr somehow less deserving of my love and loyalty because of our differences? They've accepted me. My brother has accepted me… as nobody else in in the world could —"

"Have you considered that they're using you —"

"And you aren't? Please. If they use me then I’m using them equally well, and that’s just the game of love… of politics. A roundtable of mutual backscratching if I say so myself — and I do! More than that—” a wet mass rose, clogging the base of my throat. "One moment."

I ran to the balcony's edge and with two mighty heaves wretched up the hairball, hucking the soggy comet down towards the parade ground below.

I turned back to Benezia, wiping my lip. "More than that — I'm in love."

She had to massage her forehead for a moment to contemplate the enormity of my words. "Berry you s'wit, are you quite done?”

“No! I’m alive like I’ve never… actually I do have a question for you. When she came out just now, what did she look like to you?”

“A Khajiit woman. If you’re trying to fish for a compliment or some fratty congratulations —”

“No, it’s not that. She’s the Lunar Priestess.”

“What!? How?”

I shrugged with casual confidence. “I saw through her disguise… and I suppose she saw through mine.”

Benezia groaned. “Are you going to help me or not because I'm going to save this country with or without you, but it would be so much easier if you just cooperated and stopped… fraternizing with the enemy.."

"I've been nothing but cooperative, in my way of course. And as you no doubt heard last night, there is peace now between His Perfection and the Daedric cultists.”

“Forget that, we have bigger problems now.” She drew from her pocket a roll of paper (small enough to be carried by pigeon) and unfurled it on the table before me. At the top was a mess of coded letters, translated by her hand into an intelligible script beneath:

Dear Lucky,

Health situation is worse than ever, father still sleeps and the family is divided on what to do. But they're sending nephew Lucca to visit the southern twin, and he’s bringing two western hounds. Neither of the twins will like the present they are getting. Rest and keep enjoying a quiet time with your new friends, you are the only one close enough to help when the time comes.

-Uncle Sweettooth

I skimmed it over twice before responding. "What in oblivion am I reading?"

"It says the Elder Council screwed us. They're sending Governer Lucca with two legions as an act of war on the southern Mane, presumably only as a first act before killing this one too. Lucca is just a puppet himself of some of the more corrupt great families."

"That hardly seems fair…"

"It's more brazen than I expected from them, even with the Emperor in the condition he's in."

I chewed my lip. "Beyond the corruption even, it's a terrible idea. Them moving in might instigate an immediate war between the Manes, or even force a united front against the empire… they could be provoking a larger civil war without knowing it."

Benezia seized my untouched glass from the table before reclining back on her cushion. "I was thinking the same. I suspect that Lucca’s just looking for an excuse to kill the Manes and strengthen his own control over the region. But Caius wants us to just observe and pick our best moment, our best move, but I don't think I can sit back and watch this slow fall into a war."

"But what can we do?"

"The Manes will want to kill each other off swiftly of course, but I doubt either could follow through properly. No Berry, we are uniquely positioned to execute two approaches…"

I didn't like the way she said ‘execute’.

She continued in a deadly even tone. "Option one: we have the Mane of Dune open communications with his southern counterpart, create a united front in advance of Lucca arriving, even a temporary power sharing arrangement might be enough to scare Lucca off from making any big assault —"

I winced against my headache. "His Perfection is adamant about his foe's illegitimacy, he refuses any communications even from a third party at this point."

"Well the second option is to make sure there is only one Mane before Lucca arrives. Berry, you’re still perfectly placed to make that happen."

I reached for my missing glass, my mouth completely dry. This was insanity, and I said as much.

"Think about it," she continued, "what is one life against the chaos of a civil war across an entire kingdom — an entire empire even?"

"I couldn’t even convince Aiera — the Lunar Priestess that is — to do it, what are the chances I could do it myself? I can't do that. I can't."

"We may have no choice in the end." She looked across the cloudless blue dawn. "Don't let the peace fool you, you and your brother’s positions aren't nearly so secure as they seem. And remember that whoever wins this, the Blades will be there."

I licked my lips. Harming the Mane and by extension my brother was unconscionable, and the thought of being personally targeted by the Blades as an enemy of the state seemed untenable. Neither seemed possible, yet there I knelt in the thick of it.

"Well let us try the first option, an attempt to reopen communications. How much time do I have?"

"Until they know about Lucca’s legions? Likely a few weeks before the legions are at the border."

"That's enough. Hopefully."

She took a long swallow from my glass. "And I'll prepare for the other option. In the meantime you need to embed yourself ever closer to His Perfection — open his ears to peace so we don’t have to force it. And also keep Prince Findulain out of danger."

I closed my eyes, reclining back onto a cushion. The bliss of my waking seemed suddenly very far away.