Princess Ollani spoke. "Regal indeed is my noble Tynus, when he sits in my throne."
"Why have you worked in the garden today, and why have you not been at my side? I was weak and my limbs as heavy as tired stones, and I called for you to carry me."
"You should have called louder." said Tynus. He might have been angered. He smelled angered, and Ollani could often tell.
"I cannot bring your medicine if I do not know when you are ill, Princess Ollani. Do you understand this?"
Ollani had once liked to hear Tynus speak in this way. Fifteen years ago he had been young and handsome, and she had been tired and plain. Now Tynus was older and handsomer, and she was more tired and plainer. And the city of Nilmarend was without hope and she had no beauty to offer him. "But the garden is nice." she said, quietly.
She had once liked to see him in her throne, too. Now she only feared to displace him, for she might have had no Tynus the next moment.
"Ollani, my love. You are more lovely than any flower I tend, but a thousand times sadder. I would rather not look upon that which is unhappy. The world is old and we all die in it sooner that we like."
Still Ollani did not have her throne, and she knelt instead before her beloved.
"But I cannot be happy while the mastery of Cyrod is sought by so many. There are so many warrior kings, fighting for the honour of owning a peace which cannot be."
"Would you be happier if I found these warrior kings and bashed their heads together, princess? Do not answer, but I know you would." said Tynus.
"I bet you can't." said Skavild, missing out several pages. "All those muscles are just for show. You can tell."
When Skavild found Ollani and Tynus again, on page 98, they were in Ollani's bedchamber, talking about weakness and regret.
Skavild didn't know what they were so dour about. They seemed wild about each other, so everybody outside could be damned, Ayleid and Alessian alike.
He decided to leave them to it and read the end, where they'd undoubtedly get married or else both die.
But while Skavild was missing out pages, Tynus awoke before Ollani. The Alessian forces were amassing beyond the gates of Nilmarend.
Ollani sat in the corridor, and the Alessian warriors stood around her.
"I am the loneliest woman on Nirn." said Ollani. "End this."
"Do as I command, Tynus!" said Sir Urdoc. "Put this sorceress to death, and Nilmarend will burn."
"By the Nine, how did that happen? You were only gone nine pages." said Skavild. "Why are you threatening your girl with a sword, you lunatic?"
Sir Urdoc's eyes were rounder and brighter in his smouldering fury. "Kill her, or be cast out of our ranks, and die despised and cursed by your kin."
Tynus pulled down his hood, and sheathed his sword, and his fondness for Princess Ollani drowned the cries of hatred from those who stood at his shoulder. "I have wronged you, Ollani, and your words were truth. My ardour has become poisoned. My reason was dashed to splinters. I will take you from this place, and defend you until I am dead."
"Hatred and curses I will happily endure. I cannot endure your sadness."
"Leave this place!" Roared Sir Urdoc, who had still not dared raise his blade against Tynus, even with his bodyguard at hand. He did not dare as Ollani and Tynus hurried through the deserted halls of Nilmarend. No soldier was brave enough to waylay them as they reached the front gates.
"It's too easy." said Skavild. "Man looks his commander in the eye and says he's running off with an enemy princess and his commander's too scared to stop him? Because he looked serious? 'Cause his eyes flashed?"
They passed through the outer gates. Ollani had lost her kingdom and her crown, and knew that she was safe.
Gone was Nilmarend, never again to rise.
"'Cause a seasoned warrior conveniently chose this moment and only this moment to back off with his tail between his legs? And why didn't Ollani have words with him about betraying her, even if she did decide to forgive him? Damn sloppy ending to a book. It's a damn shame." said Skavild. "That's what it is."
"Hello." said Falk Firebeard, the Jarl of Solitude's steward. "Is there somebody in the wardrobe? I need to use the privy."
When there was no answer, he knocked on the wardrobe door.
"Hello? I know you're in there. What I don't know is why. This is an emergency. I want you out of this bathroom in five seconds. Five, four, three, two, one."
"Identify yourself." said Falk. "I'm not joking, it's a number two."
He opened the door. "What were you doing in there? Is this a Thalmor plot to assassinate Jarl Elisif?"
"Is there nowhere quiet for me to practice my escapology?" said Aralina. "It is really too much, and you are testing my patience."
"Oh, go and play in the Pelagius Wing!" said Falk.
"I shall do precisely that, and you are mistaken if you think I will not!"
"Hello." said Erdi. "I hope that your Escapology practice is going well."
"I require the key to the Pelagius Wing." said Aralina.
"But," said Erdi. "I thought you were an escapologist, and would be able to open... oh, I forgot about your nice bow and arrow! Please, follow me."
Erdi unlocked and opened a nearby door. "But, be careful. I've seen ghosts! And I've heard whispering. A woman whispering in the corridor. A man screaming. Perhaps you could shoot the ghosts with your bow and arrow."
"Oh, and I could come in with you, because I need to clean it and you could protect me."
"Where is this ghost?" said Aralina. "This place is very dirty. You should start cleaning immediately. I shall find a wardrobe, and you must tell me if the ghost appears because I would like to look at it."
Erdi jumped six inches in the air. "Did you hear that noise? It sounded like someone dancing upstairs."
"Ghosts are harmless and benevolent spirits who bring messages from kind people." said Aralina. "There is a ghost in my family's house, but he is very shy. His name is Kinlord Percy and he lives in the airing cupboard."
Aralina went upstairs, and Erdi followed her. "Kinlord Percy attends all of my mother's social evenings, and drinks the rum while nobody is watching."
"I always ask after Kinlord Percy in my letters to my mother." Then Aralina shouted very loudly in horrified astonishment.
Erdi shouted too, since it seemed to be expected. "What is it? Oh, is one of the ghosts there? One of the ghosts is dancing, isn't it? Oh, it is bad, isn't it?"
"This wall is inlaid with Aldcroft woodcut tiles, and they are covered in cobwebs." Aralina lamented. "Each one must have taken a week."
"You do not have the qualifications necessary to clean these tiles. You should ask the Jarl to send you on a training course in Daggerfall. That is where the technique is taught now, according to our housekeeper, whose son-in-law was apprenticed there before the Great Anguish and rescued many works from the Royal College of Woodcutting."
"How nice to be here with somebody who understands that not all cleaning is the same." said Erdi. "Do you know what everybody says, when I tell them what I do? They make a crude joke about the Lusty Argonian Maid, or they snort and ask if I get tired of washing the Jarl's silky linens. Ha! I am carrying a duster. How can they mistake me for a launderess?"
"Imagine my position." said Aralina. "When I am apprehending malevolent foes of the Second Archivist, I am tired of the accusation that I am hauling them away to Northwatch Keep for the extraction of strategic intelligence. I am the commander of Second Archivist Eldaline's security detail. Any who inconvenience a dignitary of such importance are taken directly to the Embassy."
"It is infuriating." Aralina explained, investigating the corridor. There were no ghosts, thus far, only spiders.
I will be alone if I stay here. Erdi thought.
I probably should not be alone.
"And sometimes," said Aralina. "bands of ill-mannered Solitude youths mockingly demand that I personally take them away for questioning."
"Aralina, the ghost!" cried Erdi. "I just heard him scream! Something is going to..."
continues