"Well, well, Juni. It looks like you have returned! Is it time for some more fun? To enjoy another moment together, perhaps? Oh-ho! But not one that you would remember, no! You weren't there for this one, even though it was you who put it into motion," a familiar voice spoke from beside me as I looked around a vaguely familiar room.

Looking to the side, I saw the man standing there, his red and purple clothing bright in the shadows of the room. Instead of focusing on him, I began looking around, taking in the mess that seemed to cover so much of the room. Pieces of paper with notes scrawled across the surface as if the writer was in a hurry to put down their thoughts before they vanished. Bits of fabric and dirty clothing piled in a corner, the colors difficult to figure out in the darkened room.

It was when I turned to spot a bed that everything came together to paint an image almost lost to time. This was someplace I hadn't seen since I'd been in Cyrodiil, not since me and Ellery had been... together. Because there, laying on the bed, was Ellery. His motley was in disarray, his cap held in his hands as he slept, and his hair... Oh, I'd forgotten his hair was like that once, a few curls still not quite as limp as the rest of his untended hair.

I'd forgotten he used to have such nice curls to his hair, having gotten used to seeing him with hair that was little more than a mess of limp hair going in every direction. Reaching out, I tried to touch one of the remaining curls, wondering what had happened to it, but my hand passed through him like he wasn't there. Or like I wasn't...

Why are we here? I asked, my hand trembling as I recalled the last time I had been in a memory. For surely this was a memory. But who's? Ellery slept, so surely not his. So who? Who was watching my Ellery sleep?

Before the man could answer, the window behind me slowly slid open and I turned at the sound, watching as a dark figure climbing inside. A hood protected his identity from being discovered, a mask covering the lower half of his face where the hood's shadows would not be enough to hide his features. Without even a whisper, he moved toward the bed where my Jester slept.

A soft whisper filled the air as he pounced, a hand covering Ellery's mouth as the... assassin... straddled the Jester. "Someone was naughty and now they shall pay the price for their deeds. And since this is the... last contract I am allowed... I shall have to make sure to enjoy myself. Hope you don't mind~."

A feeling of dread built within me as I turned to Sheogorath with tears already starting to run down my cheeks. No! I don't want to see this! Not this! Please! Please don't make me watch this! Please!

With a sinister grin on his face, he reached down and rested a hand on my shoulder. "Now, now, Juni-Bug. If you don't experience it now, then when? At some point, you need to see what happened. After all, that was part of our... deal."

With his mad laughter in the background, I turned with wide eyes toward the bed as I heard a muffled scream, although that too turned into laughter in time. The sound was desperate and broken, filling the room between grunts of pain and the occasional whispered words from the assassin. Until, finally, Ellery had laughed his last and all that was left was a brittle silence as the assassin slipped from the room, bloodied cap in his hands.

The brittle silence and my own voiceless cries as I felt my heart break all over again at what I had done.

"Don't worry Juni, he's died once already. He's tasted death and death spat him back out. He won't leave you again. After all, you're all bound together now," came that wretched voice again, fingers suddenly lifting a lock of my hair as a curious hum was heard before he spoke again. "What an interesting color this is. I didn't think about this happening, but then, this isn't something I've done before! I wonder what other fun little things might happen between now and then! I hardly feel bored at all, Juni-Bug! What a shame your fools are trying to interrupt us! Oh well, there's always next time!"

With a harsh laugh, he began to fade into the background before it, too, became even darker than before, the bloodied body on the bed finally vanishing from my tearful sight. I didn't want a next time! I didn't want to see another horrid memory that wasn't even mine! I didn't... didn't... But for what I'd done, maybe it was what I deserved.

Slowly closing my eyes, I felt as if the world suddenly became heavier and struggled to open them again. When at last my eyes looked upon the world again, there was no bloodied body before me in a darkened room. Instead, my Cicero's face was before me as he leaned over me in the bed I was lying upon. Reaching a hand up, I wiped the tears that still flowed from my eyes.

"It's okay, Faith. I'm okay. I was just... not expecting that. I didn't mean for you to... Please, don't be sad for me. You've spent enough time crying for me. I don't want you to cry over me anymore, so please... please smile, Juniper?" Ellery's voice said softly from behind Cicero as I looked over his shoulder, seeing those familiar blue eyes looking back at me. "Even if it's not what I was expecting, what I was hoping for, I'm just glad to be... alive again. And that you're back home safely. Thank you for coming back."

"Faith needs to eat now," my Cicero said in a tight voice before he reached out and grabbed a bowl from the nearby table. Lifting the spoon of broth, he brought it closer to my lips, bringing back a memory of another time when he'd fed me in a similar manner. Smiling at him, I sipped at the liquid.

And the dream faded back to the dark reaches in the back of my mind. It could be dealt with later, just like everyone in the room, myself included, ignored the strand of blue-tinted hair as Cicero brushed it out of my face. Even if his eyes did linger worriedly on it before he finally looked away, focusing on the broth once more. It could be dealt with later.