Corpus Tamrielicum - The Imperial Library

[30.8] KING EDWARD VIII
"Even to witness evil such as that corrupts the soul. To watch and do nothing, Mats would
have stayed my hand had there been anything there worth keeping. And it's worse for the
young; I am sorry you had to pass through this night."
"Is my soul corrupted now?"
"You feel the acid's bite, as do we all, but you'll heal."
"Can you Heal me now?"
"Aye." Moraelyn gathered the boy in his arms, then rolled over so that Edward lay between
his parents. Aliera put her arms around him without really waking. Her strong woman smell
mingled with Moraelyn's musky dark spice odor in Edward's nostrils.
"She was so angry," Edward whispered. He'd wondered if he would ever really feel the same
toward her again and yet her arms were still as comforting as before. Maybe Moraelyn too
had needed that reassurance and had been wise enough to ask for it.
"She's a woman. That sort of injury to another touches her near," he said.
How near? The boy looked the question he dared not put.
"Thy father's not a monster. But she was wed to a man who did not care for her, and she could
not leave him. It's common enough among thy race, which makes it none the easier to bear, I
think."
"She has a daedra, too, then?" Edward asked sadly.
"You must speak with her about that."
"It wasn't really a fair fight, her shielded and not him."
"Fair fighting's for the arena, boy. Would you fight a wolf or hell hound without weapons,
spells and armor, though they have none? I would not."
"What will become of Caron and Ora? And the other folk, now that the baron's dead?"
"Do I look like the prophet Marukh? How should I know? We can stop here in the spring and
see what's been planted in the field we burned tonight. I've no mind to stay and plow it. I've
my own fields to tend, listen to me, I sound like a Nord farmer. Mines to dig is more like it."
He yawned.
"The others didn't think about afterwards. You did."
"I'm a king; it's what we do."
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