Bless Us As We Hunt

wolf boy😋

Chapter 8: No Congratulations

Pairings: Miraak x Altmer OC, Male OC x Serana (QPR)

Words: 5574

Summary

Lakeview Manor was never meant to be a nursery. After Miraak is resurrected to live freely on Nirn, he and Lilliandra are given one last impossible surprise: a daughter neither of them planned for, expected, wanted, or quite know how to love safely. There are no gods invited into Ophelia’s childhood. Only monsters, survivors, old wounds, and the fragile domesticity of dangerous people trying, in their own strange ways, to keep one small child whole. (Or: there are no fixes or redemptions for villains just because they now have a family.) A non-linear anthology narrative set 4E 203 and after.

Chapter Summary: After Lilliandra’s discovery, Miraak tells the household what no one can celebrate. Elikar’s anger, Serana’s steadiness, and Miraak’s fear shape the first fragile plan to keep her safe.

Voices wait below. Serana’s first, low and amused at something. Elikar’s answering murmur, softer than Miraak is used to hearing from him. The two of them are in the kitchen, where the fire has already been coaxed awake and the air smells of steeping herbs. The domesticity of it strikes him as obscene.

Serana sits at the table with a cup held between both hands, dark hair loose around her shoulders. Elikar stands near the counter, sleeves rolled to his forearms, looking through their inventory before he settles out for restocking later in the day. He looks up first.

His expression changes the moment he sees Miraak. It’s subtle, the irritation he barely shows.

Serana turns a heartbeat later. Her gaze flicks over him once, and whatever she sees there drains the small ease from her face.

“Where’s Lilli?” Elikar asks.

“Sleeping.”

His hands do not still as he continues his task, replying with a question, unconcerned. “Was she awake most of the night again?”

When Miraak doesn’t immediately answer his good-brother, Serana speaks up instead, filling the fragile quite between both men. “Has she found something new to read into?”

Miraak steps fully into the kitchen. He does not sit — sitting would imply this is a conversation that might soften with comfort. For a brief moment, he doesn’t know where to start, so he gives with the flat truth. “…it’s because she discovered she’s pregnant.”

The silence is immediate and far too loud.