Corpus Tamrielicum - The Imperial Library

[30.10] KING EDWARD X
And she was gone, leaving Lucky standing alone, barefoot. Josea ran to him and clasped
him...oh, how thin and cold he was!
"What is it, dearest? Who were they? What does it mean? Oh, don't leave us!"
"I must," he said, shivering. "I have stayed far too long. My dearest, I am Luck itself. I was
born with the talent, though mortal as yourself. My lord took me for a soldier. I was killed in
my first battle, even as the battle was won. I ever brought luck to others, never to myself,
never. Ebonarm appeared to me, said I had an interesting talent and offered me immortality if
I would agree to spread my luck about."
"He said the gods were overworked, seeing to events, and constantly quarreling over what
should happen. He thought that I could balance things out naturally with my inborn talent. I
was young. I'd barely lived. I didn't want to die, so I agreed, and Ebonarm said that I could
keep my body for a time. I wouldn't age or die, but I would fade slowly, as you have seen. I
am nearly eighty now. I did as he bade for many years. Then I met you, and found myself
trapped by your need, I think. I was your Luck, you see, what you needed. And truth is, I
needed you, too, my dear love.
"Yet while I've stayed here, my luck has spread like ripples, strongest in the center, weak
along the edges until there's none at all in Morrowind and High Rock and the Wilderness to
the south, and the folk are dead or chained in slavery. Also I've brought luck only to the Nords
among whom I've lived, so that the wood elves have fled and the ice elves have died. Now I
must go, and bring Luck back to them and redress the balance, as it should have been."
He went to the children's rooms and kissed them as they slept, while his tears fell on them.
Then he said, "I'll be with you one night each year, though you will not see me. Yet you will
feel my presence, dearest. Oh, and I could never speak of love or marriage...but know I love
you, as no man or god loved woman." Then he kissed her one last time, and was gone.
* * *
Mats stopped talking at last. The fire had burned down to ashes. Edward drew a long breath.
"That's some story," Edward said. "Is it true?"
"Are you calling my grandmother a liar? I know she used to leave a bit of food and a bowl of
milk out on winter nights. 'For the Wolf,' she said. And we Nords hold it very unlucky to
attack a wolf unless it attacks you. It just might be Sai!
"My grandmother said she got the tale from her great-grandmother, and her great was Josea
herself. So she said. Or maybe it was her great-great-grandmother. I get lost there. Anyway it
happened during the reign of King Vrage the Gifted, like I said, when the Nords invaded
Morrowind and High Rock. It took Sai a hundred and fifty years to get things set right again,
and he needed a lot of help. From Moraelyn's brothers and father, among others. The dark
elves and Bretons have been lucky to get their lands back, you see, and it's been hard times for
Skyrim folk, although once your luck builds up the way theirs did, it takes a long time to
really run out altogether. And Sai didn't make the same mistake again. He's been spreading
luck around ever since. Otherwise folk get arrogant and start thinking they're entitled to more
153