"Are you kidding, I have always been scared of the dark. However, the darkness I fear, you know nothing about." - Hughe

The days were growing longer as summer set in. While his brothers enjoyed the warmer days, Hughe despised the heat. He did his chores early, sometimes starting before daylight, to insure he did not have to be out in the hot air. This was not odd, but was different was that his father did little to insure he stayed working. In the past, if his father knew he was done with his chores, he would find harder chores for the ten year old, to insure he stayed working throughout the day.
For some reason, things were different.

Hughe noticed his father was preoccupied. He had little time to speak to any of them, and did little in the way of remarking how weak and useless his youngest son was. For the first time the man was looking all of his 50 winters, and maybe even then some. His brothers remained to themselves, not even joking and playing sword fight as they often did. They looked tired as if they had not slept.
Only Hughe and his mother seemed to have the same vitality they always had.
"What is wrong with them," Hughe asked Muriele.
"Nothing Hughe, it is hot and they are not smart enough to do their work early," she said, a smile on her face as she winked at him.
She always made Hughe feel the most wanted.
Still, Hughe suspected there was more to it.

Hughe overheard his brothers talking about their nightmares one day in the barn, they did not realize he was in the west stall, using the afternoon light to read a book about potions that his mother gave him. She told him to be careful and not let his father see it, as he would not appreciate it at all, but she knew Hughe would enjoy it.
They spoke of dreams that made them scared even when awake. At first Hughe thought they knew he was there, and was only saying these things to scare him, but then one began to cry.
Neither of them ever cried.
Hughe smiled, this was definitely something he could use against them. It wasn't often he had a come back to the older boys constant teasing. It took only a couple of days for him to find a way to use this information.

Hughe's knees were shaking as he still heard the laughter of his brothers in his ears. It did not work out as he had planned. He mocked them and their nightmares and even crying over them. This almost got him beat up, but instead a more devious plan was used against him. The most of their nightmares involved the woods and beyond, deeper into the swamp. When Hughe laughed at them and told them that he was brave enough to enter the swamp when they were not, they knew they had him. He was dared, and mocked when he tried to talk his way out of it.

Now, however, he was back in the woods, and back at his line between the peaceful, dry wooded area with it's tall trees, and the dark damp area, with it's twisted trees, that lead deeper into a swamp. He waited for the call, to hear his name whispered to him on the wind.
He almost wished he had heard it. He did not, not at first, not when he crossed the line, and step deeper into the shadowy woods. One last look back only brought remarks of his cowardliness from his brothers. Yells of how weak he was. Sure, he was further than they dared, though they could still barely see him. He could turn around and explain that he, their younger brother, still went deeper into the forest then they.
Still, Hughe wanted more. With a smile that he was not sure if they could see or not, Hughe turned back, and with new purpose, marched into the woods. He could hear his brothers now hollering that he would get in trouble, that they were not suppose to go that far. No, they were not concerned, it was just their way of convincing themselves that they were right for not following.

A few weeks had passed since Hughe found himself in the wooded area, near that alter. He had become sick, and had a fever that lasted for several days before breaking, leaving him in a weakened state.
His mother said she was just thankful he was alive. His brothers promised him everything from extra sweets to doing his chores if he simply refrained from telling their parents that it was they that coaxed him into going into the woods alone. While Hughe graciously accepted their offers, he had no intent of telling anyone anything. It was his secret, and his fevered dreams lead him to believe that power rested there, a power that he could be a part of in time.

Hughe noticed his brothers and his father were not feeling so well either. They were not as sick as they had been, but they seemed far more tired than normal. His mother on the other hand was more cheerful than he remembered her being for a long time. She said it was because he was feeling better, and her worst fears were not met. She dismissed Hughe's concern for the others, saying the summer was simply wearing on them.

As soon as Hughe was strong enough, he made his way to the woods again. The nightmares he had since the initial visit to the altar were horrific, but he was able to endure them, and eventually his fears lessened. He could not say why he was so drawn, but he was.
As Hughe neared the clearing he heard someone's voice, as if they were chanting something. He slowed his pace, and thought to turn back, but his own curiosity was really getting to him. He slowly made his way to the alter, noticing the trees looked far more bent and dark than he remembered. Some even looked to be watching him, though he knew that had to be his imagination.
Still a part of Hughe kept asking why would he want to return when the last visit almost killed him.
Hughe was close enough that he could see a figure kneeling before the alter. It was a woman. A naked woman. She had sickly sores all over her back, and her hair was missing in patches. Hughe could not make out what she was saying, but he watched as she laid a small carcass, an animal of some sort, on the altar. She touched the alter with her own hands, and began to writhe in agony, or pleasure, the ten year old could not tell.
He did know he should not be watching this.
Hughe began to back away, and he heard the snap of the twig that he left foot broke. While it really made a small sound, it seemed like thunder to the young man that wanted nothing more than to leave this place unnoticed.
The woman stopped for a moment, as if listening, but never looked about.

This time Hughe turned and hurried away.

Hughe stumbled from his bed, feeling more tired it seemed than when he actually went to bed. The sun was shining through the windows, but it have more of an eerie feel to the house. He looked about but was unable to find anyone in the house.
Outside the animals appeared to not have been tended to, in fact, much of the farm appeared to be in disarray. He did not remember it getting this bad, but he did stay inside alot since he had been sick.
Hughe thought to call out for his brothers or his parents, but decided not to. He hated for any of them to think him weak. Instead he began to look about for them.

Hughe heard noise in the barn as he approached it. Someone was muttering something he could not understand. It was odd, and sounded like his father. He almost stopped and turned around, but decided to see what was going on instead. Something made him wonder if this was not just another dream, another nightmare, but it felt very real.
As Hughe entered the barn he found his father in the middle of one of the stalls. The stall was full of manure, as no one had been doing their chores for some time. He sat there, covering himself in the manure, muttering intangibly until he saw Hughe.
"What do you want boy, is everything okay? Are you feeling better? Do you want to do your chores now, or you planning to play sick longer?"
"What are you doing," Hughe asked, almost frozen in place.
"Can't you tell what I am doing boy? I am eating cow dung and rubbing it all over me, how stupid are you?"
"Why are you...." Hughe began, but his father began to rise. He was reaching for the pitchfork, but kept slipping in the manure.
"Come here boy, help me up," the man said, slipping again as if he were drunk.
Hughe ran out of the barn.

Hughe ran to the back of the house, hoping to find his mother doing the clothes. Instead he saw his brothers by the back steps, both on all fours looking at something on the ground. They seemed very interested and paid no attention to him as he approached. It was not until he got close enough that he saw the boys were not looking at something, they were eating something. They were digging up worms and fighting over them, both had mouthfuls already with the slime dripping down the corners of their mouths.
"You can't have any," the oldest said after he swallowed, looking to Hughe. The other looked over and shook his head, as if agreeing with the oldest.
"Where is mother," Hughe asked, backing away from the two.
"The *** is not our mother," the oldest said.
"You are not our brother," the other said.
"She told us about you and what you are," the oldest sneered. "You want our worms, don't you!"
Hughe just turned and walked away, leaving to two to now giggle over how fat a worm was or how juicy another looked.
"I must be dreaming," Hughe said as he entered the house.

Hughe could not say how he ended up in the woods. He remembered leaving his brothers to eat worms, and suddenly here he was, in the clearing deep in the woods. He was damp all over from the night dew. His hair was stuck and matted to his head.
He could not help but wonder how he could have gotten there.
"Come Hughe," his mother said from behind him.
Hughe looked back to see her standing by the alter, a smile on her face.
"Momma, what is happening," Hughe asked, not wanting to move from his spot.
"Come to me, and I will explain it all," she said, her arms opened to him. She had on a white tunic that went to her knees, and nothing else. Her naked body beneath was silhouetted by the dim light. She was not as damp as he was, her hair was still dry as was her tunic.
'How long have I been here," Hughe asked, doing as his mother bid.
"Not long sweety," she said.
"Kneel here," she said, helping him down in front of the altar. "Put your hands on the altar, do not be afraid. It is okay."
Hughe did was he was told, though he was very scared due to what happened before. As his hands touched the alter, everything went dark, then white. So white and so bright that he could not see any better than he could in the dark.

A grown man looked to the ring on his middle finger, golden with runes and writings only he could see. His white hair blew in the wind, even as his purple robes and cloak popped behind him. The ring he wore was powerful for many reasons. He remembered the night he had received the ring, he was only ten years old at the time. Now he was thirty five, though only eleven years had passed on Nirn. The time he spent in the Oblivion Plane aged him, while no time passed on Nirn.

Hughe looked at the land he was raised on for ten years, nothing of the farm that he lived on remained.

The daedra that took the lady that he thought was his mother had given him the ring, in an effort to bind him to her. Instead, in the end, he was able to bind the daedra now to him. He would call on her when he desired, but it always took something out of him to call on such a strong daedra. She was smart and cunning, and Hughe had to be smarter and more cunning when dealing with her.

Muriele was not his mother, she was his mother's midwife. His father was hardly known by his mother, and died weeks after impregnating her. His mother died in childbirth. He found this out many years after leaving the farm he grew up on. Muriele took him as her child and met Birane, whom she married. Muriele was a worshiper of Vaermina, whom she had made a terrible deal with. She would raise the child until he was ten, then offer the child to her as a sacrifice, in return for a lesser daedra to be bound to her and her will. Instead she loved the child, and tried to offer Vaermina the others in his place. Muriele was found to be weak, and it pleased Vaermina more to watch Hughe grow up after everything that happened to him, to see if his soul was as diseased at it seemed.
Or so Kmyzene, the lesser daedra Hughe now had bound to him, told him.

It mattered little. Hughe knew enough to not trust daedra, but that they did not always lie. He sensed some truth in this story, but that Kmyzene was holding something else back.

"Born to a dead woman, son of a dead father," Hughe said to himself, then shrugged. The past was the past, so he simply moved on. Hughe turned away from the empty land that was once his home, many years ago, and vanished as if he was never there.