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Free from the Honorhall Orphanage after a childhood filled with abuse and neglect, Sloan must now find her own way in the world.

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Sloan's story

Sloan's Story part 35 - A Generous Offer, All Strings Attached

“Hey, girl! Stop!”   Sloan stopped as a burly guard stepped toward her, then put forth her best innocent face.   “Me?” She squeaked her voice on the word.   “Yes, you.” The guard stopped, towering above her. “What are you doing with that dagger?” He cast a dismissive eye over her. “If you have a license, I’m the Jarl of Solitude.”   Sloan didn’t have to feign her surprise or ignorance on this one. “License?”   “Aye. You know women can’t carry wea
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Sloan's Story part 17 - If You Can Sneak Up On a Deer, You Can Sneak Up On Anything

“This is stupid. Don’t we know anyone who can shoot a bow?”   “Shh!” Gilna waved frantic hands in a downward gesture.   Sloan dutifully shut up, but the question remained in her head. Here they were, sneaking through the trees to kill a deer with a dagger from close range instead of doing what sensible people did – shoot it from a distance. Fortunately, the deer did not appear to have heard the talking - it continued to munch on clover-laden grass.   Gilna stopped,
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Sloan's Story part 46 - The Daughter of Melissa Shae

“I have some daggers you can use. Don’t worry, you will like them.” Delphine opened a display case and pulled out a pair of ebony daggers. “These things will slice through metal. Although try not to actually slice metal. Also, I got you all licenses for armor and weapons. The local guards have been too afraid to challenge your orc companions so far, but that won’t last. We don’t need any trouble. Did you get the horn?”   Sloan shook her head. “No. Sian got there ahead of us.” She smile
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Sloan's Story part 43 - Enter the Xanthic Paragon Of Shouting In The Ionosphere Of Nirn

It wasn’t hard to get out of the city. Sloan loitered near the gate until she saw a nondescript middle-aged man dressed in drab yellow but elaborate robes who appeared to be alone and sidled up to him with her best ‘please help me, mister!’ eyes. He seemed bemused but did not protest when she joined him and they passed through the gates after only the most cursory once-overs from the guards.   Much to Sloan’s surprise, he did not demand payment (via money or sex) once they reached the
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Sloan's Story part 18 - These Silly Games

Sun’s Height was Sloan’s least favorite month. The height of summer brought with it boiling heat and constant sweat and ripened the canal to its most pungent. She wrinkled her nose as she strolled with Gilna along the upper boardwalk.   “It stinks here. Now that the Stormcloaks have captured Whiterun, maybe we could open a new location there.”   Gilna laughed. “Whiterun is nice, but perhaps it would be best to wait until the war is truly over.”   “That’s true. It wo
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Sloan's Story part 33 - Plan for the Future You Need, Not the Future You Want

Sloan clutched her small sack, filled with all her worldly possessions, and took deep breaths as the room came into clear focus. Then she froze in place.   The Bee and Barb hummed with the normal activity of the day as locals, taking a break from their daily routine, came in for a pint and the latest news from the rest of Tamriel via the merchants and other visitors fresh through the Cyrodiil gate.   “What the…”   Mirren had continued walking a few steps, but now tu
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Sloan's story part 60 - The Road to Somewhere

Sloan rode out of Dawnstar with her contract still breathing and she was not entirely sure what she was going to say when she got back.   She had been turning the thought over for hours now, worrying at it like a loose tooth. The Sanctuary lay to the south; the roads were open. She could turn the horse in any direction and be gone before anyone thought to look for her. She was not bound by debt or oath or the kind of blood pact the Brotherhood used to use to seal its members to the cau
Sloan's story

Sloan's Story part 52 - The Matron's Invitation

The sun had dipped behind the Blue Palace and was nestling into its cloudy pillows across the bounds of the ocean by the time Sloan made her way to the docks. The city’s noise faded, replaced by the distant cry of gulls and the slap of water against the piers.   The warehouse was easy to find—a hulking shape of weathered wood and iron, its windows boarded over. Sloan studied it for a solid hour but saw no movement, so sign it had been used in years. She did not, of course, believe what
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Sloan's story chapter 57 - The Night Mother

The sanctuary had a way of changing without moving. It was the same stone, the same low ceilings that held the smoke close, the same dark corners that ate sound; yet, as Sloan drove the cart through the larger of the entrance passages with Cicero’s bells chiming like a warning no one had asked for, the air felt altered, somehow. It was like a room after someone says a name that shouldn’t be spoken out loud.   Cicero bounced at her shoulder, hands fluttering, muttering affectionate nons
Sloan's story

Sloan's Story part 31 - Her Mother's Daughter

(Quick note: for those of you who do not read all my stories, THIS CHAPTER of Trendil's story contains the defeat of Mishi at the hands swords of Trendil, whose uncanny skills learned from her particular sword style allowed her to see through Mishi's trickery. It also would have held a very strong emotional note for Sloan's story had I thought ahead enough to do a little more emphasizing of how Mishi has taken pains to undermine Sloan's feelings of having a family at The Vixen, both to teach her
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Sloan's Story part 22 - An Unwelcome Guest

It had been a year and a half, give or take a month or two, since the Stormcloaks had swept through the town like a raging tide of fury, washing the Imperial garrison away and changing Tekla’s life forever.   From scullery maid to Steward of the Jarl of Falkreath – who could have predicted such a rise? At first, when Dengeir had regained the Seat after his brother’s defeat and offered her the position of Steward, she had hesitated. Who was she to have such power? What would the nobles
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Sloan's Story part 30 - Criss Cross

Sloan moved through the room, chatting and laughing with the people she came across as if they were old friends, all the time circling her prey.   Mishi looked resplendent. No surprise, there. It was funny how she never seemed to get the assignments that would require her to dress as a pauper or a servant – hers were all high-society kills.   Sloan laughed to herself. It was too bad she hadn’t thought of that before – she could have hidden in the grimiest, lowest-of-the-low a
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Sloan's Story part 48 - The Sting of the Whip

“I told you no one was to enter during my sessions.” Rulindil didn’t yell – he never yelled – and he kept his back to the door, his attention focused entirely on the naked bleeding human man splayed out on the wall before him, yet his voice carried through the room.   Sloan smiled and moved to a table with a variety of interesting tools. “Oh, Runny, you’re so funny, thinking you can tell me what to do.”   She picked up a needle-sharp dagger and pretended to study the blade as
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Sloan's Story part 44 - Delphine's Dragonborn Dilemma

On the one hand, Sloan’s new travel companions were leagues better than her last - they had been on the road for days and not a one of them had commented on or groped her own boobs!   On the other, they stood out like a sabrecat among barn kittens. The best method for staying out of view was to blend in with those around you. But a group with what seemed like twin women and a pair of orcs, including the largest specimen of the species Sloan had ever seen, could do nothing but stand out
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Sloan's Story part 45 - Ustengrav

A heavy storm rolled up in the early afternoon as they trekked east through the swamp toward Ustengrav and Sloan sighed as she pulled her cloak tighter. She was tired of being damp and chilly and would have loved a real inn with real food and a real bed. But Aithne had refused to enter the inn in Morthal for reasons she seemed loathe to explain and had insisted they stay the night back in Narzulbur instead.   Which was fine on a day when they were traveling across country – it was nice
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Sloan's story part 58 - Whispers

Despite Sloan’s misgivings, things did actually return to something akin to normal – the “something akin” part being the constant muttering of a certain jester standing next to a certain box, of course – over the course of the next week. Life in the Brotherhood settled around the crate and its caretaker like water around a stone. The only real difference was the whispers.   They began three days after the Night Mother's arrival. They were quiet, at first, and Sloan thought them just a
Sloan's story

Sloan's Story part 10 - The Long Walk

In retrospect, attempting the three-hundred mile journey to Riften on eleven septims, unescorted and unarmed save for a blunt, rusty knife she found discarded in a corner of the alley, may not have been the wisest choice Sloan had made in her short life. But if the night had taught her anything, it was that a life as a street whore would get her nothing but suffering and a probable early death from exposure to the frigid Skyrim nights. So she shoved herself to her feet, wiped off her disheveled
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Sloan's Story part 47 - Return to the Embassy

Sloan sighed as the carriage climbed the hills out of Solitude toward the Thalmor Embassy, then glanced at her traveling companion on the padded bench across from her and laughed. “I’m getting spoiled. It makes me feel slightly queasy, but I miss Aithne’s teleportation. I was beginning to forget just how far away things are from each other.”   Merks shook his head. “She acts like it is a simple spell but the only other one I know who can do that from so far away is Professor Marence, a
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Sloan's Story part 23 - A Brief Debriefing

Sloan took a deep breath as she paused before the door. The debriefings were her least favorite part of the job – no matter how well she thought she had done or how careful she had been to leave no loose ends, Kira and Mishi always managed to find several errors or potential security risks. It was just like her times walking around with Gilna and then having to recount everything she saw.   She hadn’t cared for that, either.   She released the breath and opened the door. As e
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Sloan's Story part 42 - Spreading Rumors

Sloan sat at the vanity that had, presumably, belonged to Aventus' mother and studied her face in the mirror with a frown. Her silver eyes stared back, still disconcerting to see after a lifetime of looking at golden irises. Another small mystery in a sea full of them. Perhaps it had something to do with her new ability to see in the dark?   She shook her head as she tapped the calendar next to the vanity. A rarity, that - few people in a land like Skyrim needed to know the exact date.
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Sloan's Story part 9 - Whore

The contents of Sloan’s purse had dwindled considerably – enough so she could no longer afford the ride back to Riften - and she knew of only one way to make money. She went back to Candlehearth, but this time went up the stairs to the common room, where she relaxed and bided her time until evening fell and people began to enter. Once a fair-sized crowd had gathered, she meandered about the room, keeping an eye out for anyone who seemed to take an interest in her. An older man caught her eye, so
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Sloan's Story part 34 - It's a Brand New World

“Here you are, dear. It looks like it will be about your size. And it has only had two previous owners!”   “Thank you, ma’am.” Sloan took the bundle of clothes with faux shaking hands and nervous smile. The woman’s price for a set of battered hand-me-downs had been beyond ludicrous, but “real” Sloan wouldn’t know that, of course. It didn’t matter – getting more money was easy enough. “What about that dagger?”   The shopkeeper’s eyes raised in surprise. “What things could a gi
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Sloan's Story part 53 - Lost and Found

Sloan reached Melissa’s old cabin at dusk, when the last of the light bled out of the trees and turned the world into a wash of gray. It wasn’t the smart time to travel -- too late for safety, too early for true darkness -- but she hadn’t come for comfort. She hadn’t even come for answers. Not tonight.   She came for the armor.   The black-and-red thing that wasn’t really a thing -- more like a second skin that decided to pretend it was cloth. It had saved her once already. W
Sloan's story

Sloan's Story part 54 - Lifting the Darkness

The door closed behind Sloan without ceremony.   There was no echo -- just the sound of stone settling into stone, as if the passage itself had decided she could not go back. The air inside the sanctuary was cooler than the forest above, thick with the smell of oil, iron, and old smoke. It wasn’t damp, exactly, but it felt used. Worn smooth by years of bodies passing through, breathing the same air, bleeding onto the same stones. She didn’t move, at first. She stood just inside th
Sloan's story

Sloan's Story part 41 - A Reunion of Sorts

An alarm in Sloan’s head went off the moment she entered their room at the inn and she dove to the side, rolled, and came up holding the dagger she had stashed under the bed.   “Impressive instincts.” An amused somehow familiar female voice. Sloan tried to remember where she had heard it as it continued, “I was right about you. So who are you?”   The blonde woman Sloan had rescued sat at the table. Her expression matched her sardonic tone but it was something else that tugged
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