Dinnertime Story-Telling

A lot has happened, but Kiseena will do her best to explain what she can. She is not sure who will ever read this, but if she can, someday Kiseena will turn this into a book like mother used to own. With luck others will read these words and find them exciting.

As the words spoke before, this one's name is Kiseena. She is a khajiit and, until just now, was a prisoner of the Empire. She was held deep below the prisons of the Imperial City for killing the filthy mer who-

(the above paragraph has been hastily scribbled over, striking it out)

Kiseena will start over.

Mother's name was Eimhyra Jernfris. She was a nord, and was very pretty. This one has seen her crush the skull of an angry bear with just her hands and a log. Kiseena could never have asked for a better mother. She was not this one's real mother - none believe that khajiit or argonians can mate with men or mer and make kittens. But she was mother anyway.

Kiseena used to ask mother how they met. "A huge, winged shape came from the south," mother would say, and she would always smile. "It swooped down low over the farm I was traveling through and dropped a bundled-up kitten into a big bale of hay." This one knows mother was being silly, but that is the story mother always told. It sounded exciting, but Kiseena learned to keep such tales to herself, so others did not think her skooma-touched.

Mother came from Morrowind, from the island north of Vvardenfell called Solsthiem. She had been born as a slave, owned by a filthy bastard of an altmer. One day she escaped and gave herself the last name "Jernfris," which she had told this one meant something about being free. Some time later is when she found Kiseena and raised this one as her own. Although Kiseena and mother moved often, a home was eventually chosen near Cheydinhal in Cyrodiil. During a trip to the Imperial City, the they found mother and Kiseena.

This one remembers pestering mother to watch the fights in the arena when the altmer and his friend arrived. He had been following for a long while to make sure, and had decided it was time to "collect his property." The altmer's friend pulled a dagger from his hip and stabbed mother in the stomach.

Kiseena does not remember much after that. There are fuzzy memories of the mer saying that freedom had "ruined" mother, and that he had no use for slaves who had tasted freedom and so had a reason to try and escape again. There are then memories of the altmer and his friend dead on the ground and people were shouting and screaming. The guards found this one was holding onto mother's limp body with blood around her mouth and claws.

And so this one was thrown into the imperial prison. It was so long that Kiseena lost track of what day and month it was, perhaps even the year. Life had become sitting in the light through the tiny window and waiting for meal time and sleeping.

Some time later, the guards came to take Kiseena out of the cell. She was cleaned up and put into a carriage while it was very dark out. The trip was very long and this one was not allowed to leave get out for any reason. By the passing of Magnus each day, Kiseena learned that she was being taken northeast, though she did not know where. She passed into the lands of Morrowind, and then was brought by boat to Vvardenfell, to a small village called Seyda Neen.

But that is a tale for another time. This one is running out of room on the parchment and is sure that the imperials are eager for her to finish her meal and never again darken their offices.