“Pick up the pieces and start again,” Lena was sitting on the bed in her chamber at the palace in New Sheoth. She was alone. Sanguine made her promise him she would not commit suicide in his absence, and besides, suicide was one of the few things forbidden on the Shivering Isles. Dylan was at his post outside her door. “Pick up the pieces…” She looked around the room. “But I can’t remember where everything goes!” She smiled, recalling the words of Prince Sheogorath lamenting having to rebuild himself and his Realm after each Greymarch. “I know exactly how you feel, My Prince,” she nodded. “Where everything goes…” She stretched out her hands and looked at them. They were hands. Ordinary hands without deformed swallen joints. She looked at her legs and feet – the same. It wasn’t the ultimate youth that she was craving, but just a functional body, and if it also looked alright, that would be a plus.

She got up and walked over to the mirror. A young woman was looking back at her, blond hair, amber eyes. She seemed to be in her twenties. “Not seventeen,” Lena thought. “So for the better.” She smiled and nodded, and her reflection nodded back.

She opened her wardrobe and took out the only dress that was there – a black finery of Dementia, worn, stained and torn in places. The only other garment that she found was her Sheogorath Regalia, a formal dress meant for special occasions. She shook her head and put it back. Someone would have to lend her a dress.

“Dylan, get me a dress,” she put her head outside the door without opening it too much.

“M’Lord?” Dylan turned to look at her, perplexed. “What sort of a dress?”

“Any dress that isn’t stained or ripped,” she shrugged. “Go to the Duchess of Dementia and requisition one. She’s about my size, it should fit.”

She shut the door. Dylan scratched his head, glared at the other guard outside Lena’s door and turned to go looking for the Duchess. Being the only male among the all-female Mazken guard at the palace wasn’t easy.

“She will make you feel the pain of being a man,” the female guard mocked him. “Fetch me that, bring me this, she’ll take you shopping next. At least we don’t make our men fetch dresses for us. You should have stayed with the Order.”

“I am still with the Order, Kiskengo,” he cut her off. “And the only reason you don’t make us fetch dresses for you is that all you ever wear is armour.”

The guard was right, however. As soon as Lena was dressed, she declared that it was time to go shopping. She made Dylan follow her into every shop of both Bliss and Crucible and bought every dress and every pair of shoes in every colour. “I need choice,” she explained. “I can’t be seen wearing the same thing every day, I am Lord Sheogorath!”

“You’ve done just that for the last sixty years…” Dylan started saying, but quickly caught himself. Perhaps he shouldn’t remind her of how she felt or what she looked like during that time.

Finally, laden with parcels and tired, they stopped at Bernice’s on their way back to the palace.

“I see you are feeling better!” Sanguine laughed at the sight of a tower of parcels coming through the door with Dylan somewhere underneath. “You could have had them delivered, you know.”

“And deprive my faithful bodyguard of fulfilling his duties?” She laughed. “Never! However, we can have them delivered from here.” She put her head through the door and called a guard walking past. “Can you take a few boxes back to the palace?” She smiled at the guard who saluted. “That’s right, all of that…” It was now Dylan’s turn to smirk seeing the guard getting loaded with all those parcels. “Duties should be shared,” Lena grinned at Sanguine, sitting down at his table and gesturing Dylan to do the same. “It’s good to have everything back to normal.”

Bernice’s Taphouse was filling with people, it was time for dinner. Bernice had her hands full serving food and drink, and even forgot to cough at times. Smoked baliwog legs were disappearing quickly, with roasted grummite eggs to follow, Summer Wine and ale were on every table, and soon the conversation became loud enough to allow Lena to say what she wanted to say without anyone listening.

“I want to thank you two for standing by me when I needed it most,” she looked at Sanguine and Dylan in turn. “It could not have been easy… and I cannot promise it won’t happen again,” she sighed. “But my personal Greymarch is thus concluded, and there’s no reason we cannot enjoy the rest of my reign as Lord Sheogorath until the Prince returns.”

…

In the years that followed much of Lena’s time was spent walking the roads of her Realm, the same as before. She still enjoyed delving into caves and ruins to fetch one or the other trivial item for one of the citizens, and Dylan came to realise that it wasn’t the items that were of importance, it was the fact that she went to all that trouble to fetch them. It was the case of Bernice’s aquanostrum over and over again.

The one striking difference however was how Lena conducted herself, how she treated herself, there was a sense of purpose in her step and confidence in her demeanour. She no longer regarded her body as revolting, and came to believe that removing her clothes in front of someone could be seen as a gift rather than an attempt to purge their dinner. And yet she still held everyone at bay, apart from Sanguine. It’s been years and she still hadn’t been to Lucien’s fort, something was holding her back, but what it was, she could not figure out.

One day she and Dylan were going through a difficult ruin in search of a fork of some sort, or something similarly mundane, yet important to one of the people. It had been hard going, the ruin was filled with undead. They cleared it, but found no forks, it was disappointing but not unexpected. They needed to rest, but the nearest camp was a distance away.

“Let’s stay here, didn’t we find living quarters in this ruin?” Dylan wasn’t willing to walk to the camp. “The skeletons are all put to rest for now, it’ll be quiet…”

They backtracked to stay the night.

“Let me help you with that…” Dylan picked up Lena’s breastplate as she was trying to undo the buckles. She let him. Perhaps she didn’t need to worry that much… perhaps he actually really meant it… wanted it even…

Was it true that no one could ever refuse a Dark Seducer? Was that musky sweet scent impossible to overcome? Or was it rather that this was Dylan, her friend of many years, who had long lost all notions of service when they were away from the palace, and who was simply there because he wanted to be with her? In which case, why was she still resisting?

She stopped resisting. The Dark Seducer did not disappoint.

…

During her travels in Sheogorath’s Realm, Lena sometimes came across unusual statues that seemed infused with magic, yet had no effect when approached or touched.

“I’ve heard of these, they are portals,” Dylan explained. “Mostly inactive, left over from previous eras, deactivated during subsequent Greymarches… something like that,” he shrugged. “There supposed to be a lot of them all over the place, even some at the palace… particularly at the palace, perhaps… Rumour has it that they become active sometimes, for a time, then go dead again.”

“But where do they lead?” Lena was stroking the statue in fascination.

“To other worlds… Who is to say where exactly…”

A few times the statues responded, taking Lena to strange distant worlds. Sometimes Dylan followed, other times he could not, but there was always a way to return, and time would have often stood still in the Realm of Sheogorath regardless of how long Lena stayed in the other worlds.

“You should be careful with these portals though,” Dylan tried to instill some caution into her. “Some worlds may be hostile… there may not be a way back, or you may die there… You are mortal, if you die, you die here too.” But Lena was getting reckless, touching every statue she could find, daring fate… Until one day she touched a statue and found herself standing on the shore of Niben Bay, but there was no island in the middle, no way back to the Shivering Isles. She looked around, everything looked as it should be, yet her heart fell… something wasn’t right…