Chapter 17 - Domestic Bliss
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Moving Muiri into Riftweald took barely a couple of hours as she didn't need to move any furniture, only her clothes and personal mementoes. I'd bought her a wardrobe and a chest of drawers to hang her clothes in and the drawers for her more personal garments, and made sure she had plenty of space for any other personal effects. Aranea moved out and into her Muiri's old place, which Muiri would still use as her personal shop, and a storage place for all her ingredients and potions. Aranea would split her time between my place and there.
I was quite used to looking after myself, and even Aranea was left annoyed as I'd quite happily cook for myself. But Muiri slipped straight into the role of what I would called 'domestic goddess'. Coming home after whatever I was doing, whether a day at the Guild or out hunting for game and hides, I would wander in to find Muiri already at the pit, cooking up a storm. She would always smile and greet me with a hug and kiss that would already want me wanting more. She knew exactly what she was doing too. Sometimes we'd have to move the pot so we could head upstairs and not worry about the food burning.
Most nights, we'd sit together on the porch and share a bottle of wine, Muiri nearly always sitting on my lap, leaning back against me. We would generally be sitting in darkness, though we'd still hear cries of 'hello' and 'good evening' from those who were passing by. There would be occasional visits to the Bee and Barb, but we found enjoyment in the presence of the other and were quite content to stay at home most of the time.
One evening, Muiri mentioned that she would like to go hunting with me. While surprised, I offered to show her how to use a bow and arrow. There was much laughter when she insisted she could use magic, left wondering how talented she was. Showing me the next day, I think I fell in love with her a little bit more, if it were possible. I had no idea she knew such spells!
"Why didn't you tell me!?" I asked after almost burning down the entire forest. Not literally, but the fire spell she used was utterly destructive.
She shrugged, almost embarrassed. "I've never really had to show off. I'm an alchemist, not a mage."
"You could be both. You could be... Still, I think you should learn the bow. There's something noble about hunting an animal and taking it down with a simple wooden bow and arrow."
Smirking, she leaned into me and asked, "You consider magic cheating?"
I made a gesture with fingers. "Maybe just a little."
She relented quickly. "Okay, I'll learn the bow, just for you."
Teaching her the bow was a lot of fun, as it meant a whole lot of body contact. And, of course, that distracted us both, and half the time we ended up doing other things other than practicing her bow. Mostly just a lot of making out and cuddling, which would leave us laughing at the fact we were both so incredibly useless at times. But it was just a small sign of how happy we were together. I couldn't remember an argument, barely a disagreement. We just seemed to always be on the same wavelength.
In addition to never going to bed even slightly angry, never leaving a room without saying I love you, and near constant affection for each other, there was no decrease at all in our intimacy. In fact, I think it increased and kept at the same level once we had rings on our fingers. Returning from Eastmarch, we would make love more often than not upon waking up, I would sometimes return home for lunch, where we'd fit in a hot, steamy 'quickie', and at night, well, we'd generally wear each other out and go to sleep with smiles on our faces.
Despite all the above, despite our near constant lovemaking and affection, the one topic we didn't talk much about after the wedding was children. I think part of the reason was that we wanted to enjoy each other for as long as possible before introducing babies and little people to our lives, as we knew our lives would change once that happened. Not for the worst, but the idea of making love anywhere around our house would go out the window.
I'm sure it was at least three months after the wedding and our trip away to Eastmarch before we even thought about the idea again. For the first time in a long time, I detected some nerves when she sat down next to me, on the lounge in front of the fire. I could sense something was on her mind, so placed the book I was reading down on the table next to me before turning towards her. She took my hands in hers, eyes gazing into mine, and I could see something was on her mind.
"Ragnar, I want to start a family."
"Okay."
To me, it was that simple. My response made her laugh for a moment before she turned serious. "Are you sure?"
"Absolutely," I replied, making sure I sounded as adamant as possible.
"You realise..." I cut off whatever she was going to say by kissing her. I felt her smile as I kissed her, so I think she understood why I chose to cut her off. We kissed for a while before finally breaking apart. Taking a deep breath, she stroked my cheek and said, "Well, that answers whatever question I was going to ask."
"The thought of having children with you, Muiri, makes me ridiculously happy."
Not wanting to waste any time, she grabbed me by the hand and led me upstairs. She suggested we needed more practice but her body needed to be ready too. Apparently she would need to ween herself of the potions before her body would be capable. I didn't really understand, but she managed to dumb it down enough that it was a case of, once she was capable, I'd find myself rather exhausted, in a good way.
While my domestic life was indeed bliss, that didn't stop me from continuing my work with the Guild. I tried not to find myself away from Riften for too long. In fact, I think Brynjolf went out of his way to ensure I was never away for longer than a night or two at most. I did find myself in Whiterun for a meeting with our contact there, and running into Ysolda was amusing and awkward all at once. Though I remembered each night we'd spent together fondly, and that was without us never having been intimate, I did have to politely remove her from my lap and explain I was now married. Though surprised, she was happy to hear the news.
Guild jobs were handled by others most of the time. Brynjolf kept the day to day operations going for me. Karliah looked after Nightingale business, particular further afield, outside of Skyrim, increasing our presence across Tamriel. We'd made connections with other Guilds throughout the continent, though some saw as competition rather than allies. While there were no threats stated, one or two Guilds told us to back off as the countries they were operating was there's and they would allow no interference. So as the Guild ran smoothly, I could concentrate on tracking down more Daedric artefacts, though all Karliah and I did was make a list of where we heard rumours of shrines and would go from there.
We eventually had a list of possibilities. There was a shrine to Boethiah east of Windhelm. There was a shrine to Mehrunes Dagon far to the east of Morthal, high up in the mountains. Everyone warned me about even contemplating anything to do with Dagon, considering he was responsible for the Oblivion Crisis. But anything else was simply rumour, such as a shrine to Clavicus Vile in the mountains west of Riften, east of Falkreath, and a shrine to Vaermina not far from Dawnstar. But those were simply rumours, and would require investigation.
Visiting Karliah at her Hall, we were poring over a few books and scrolls, when she admitted her concerns. "Some of these we shouldn't really be messing with, Ragnar."
"Okay, you've warned me about anything to do with Mehrunes Dagon, and I'm willing to take your advice. But out of the list of Daedric princes, who else should we avoid?"
"Molag Bol."
"Recognise the name. But I know little about him."
"Some Daedra are not considered wholly evil, as you know. Molag Bol is evil personified. He isn't known as the 'King of Rape', the 'Harvester of Souls', the 'Lord of Brutality', or the 'Prince of Rage' for no reason. He is responsible for vampirisim. My people detest him. He's not someone you want to do anything for, Ragnar."
"So I should avoid anything to do with him?"
