TESfest Day 2 - Beloved
the earliest memory of an alchemist/future dragonborn
word count - 910
The sound of motion downstairs woke him up. The subtle creak of the rocking chair his father rested in, imported from Alinor, wooden furniture a rarity in Valenwood. The sound echoed out into the dark of the family home, the tick of a clock, the rolling of the winds outside.
Creeping downstairs in the dark, Emeros grasped the wall for support, small hands running along the surface. He turned, facing the living room. His father sat near the door, sword resting in his lap, thrumming with freshly charged enchantment.
Creak. Creak.
Emeros gazed into the dark, the shadows on his father's face. The older elf, tall as the many trees that surrounded their home, wearily watched the door. The windows. The hum of night insects and nocturnal animals blared in Emeros' ears as he stood in the shadows of the hall, half-frozen. As though he'd done something wrong.
His father craned his neck, the moonlight catching against the circles under the half-Altmer's eyes, the grim draw of his mouth. As though he hadn't slept in days. He still wore his work clothes. Spotting the figure of his young child, he pat the knee of his trousers, beckoning him closer. Emeros slowly, awkwardly, stumbled over to the figure of his father, dark eyes seeming all the darker in the night. The only light drew in from outside, silvery-pink hues of the moons, twisting around the stars.
His father gingerly pressed a large palm between his shoulder blades, the fabric of the boy's nightshirt rumpling beneath the touch. The child rested his head on his father's knee, staring out into the dark. The ticking of the clock lulled at him, sweeping away the fullness of silence. The door, parted, allowed a cool breeze to filter into the home. He closed his eyes as his father ruffled his hair, the half-Altmer's hand gilded in the dim.
For a moment, they remained in this peace. The slow rocking of the chair that filled the air, father and son, sword across the older's lap.
"Go back to bed, Em, you need your rest." The rumble of his father's voice startled the Bosmer child at first, and he looked up into that face he knew so well, lined with the years and warmed by the sun of his Aldmeri homeland. Instead, the child buried his face against his father's knee. Silent protest. The man laughed, and after a moment spent glancing from the top of Emeros' head to the door, he set his sword aside and pulled his son into his arms, patting his back, standing. "Come on, boy, it's past bedtime."
"Don't wanna," the child yawned against his father's shoulder, causing the other to laugh again, shaking his head.
"I know. Sometimes we have to do things we don't want to do, but that's what life is," he murmured as he carried the bundle up the stairs, using his side to push the bedroom door open. He set Emeros on the side of the mattress, helping him crawl in and pulling the covers to his shoulders.
In the silence, he sat, running fingers through Emeros' thick, dark hair. Just like his mothers. The man sighed and spoke, "you know we love you, right?"
Half-asleep, the boy nodded. He was only three, he couldn't sense the dread that permeated everything his father said that night.
"We love you. And we always will, Emeros. Gods willing, you'll know it."
"Mhm."
Emeros buried his cheek against the pillow. Warm, secure. The light drew deeper into the room, moons that cast ghastly depths on his father's face, sleepless nights etched on his features, his light hair tugged back in a ribbon.
His wife, had muttered prayers over their son all night, her voice still in the back of his mind. As she bathed him and dressed him and combed his hair, she murmured Bosmeri prayers to Y'ffre and told their son in shushed, gentle words, that she loved him. They both did. They'd done everything for this boy. Their first, and their only. The most beloved gift the gods could give them. They had done everything they could.
A kiss to Emeros' forehead, the boy already drifting into sleep. His father rose slowly, carefully, as not to wake his son, footsteps quieted along the floor, same form he took on a hunt. He passed his wife, seated in their room, charging her own weapons. Her palms grasped the soul gem as she passed it over a blade, light twisting in phantasmic paths from the stone to the sword. They met eyes.
Neither spoke.
He crept back to his chair and sat down, pulling the sword into his lap. It hummed against his fingers, and he wrapped and unwrapped the digits around the hilt.
Outside, the flush of winds and ringing of night birds.
Inside, the creak of the chair.
His stomach twisted. Something slithered in the air. He'd known it from the moment he woke up this morning, he and his wife both, that this would be the night. Experienced hunters had a sense for when they became the prey.
The shadows swelled around him, the living room all too quiet.
Sleep was an elusive daedroth these days, tantalizing him from the distance. But as a strange warmth threatened to overwhelm his body and consciousness began to slip away, Cyrellon Nightlock realized one thing.
He could no longer hear the ticking of the clock.
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