And so ends the account of my dealings with the Twin Manes of Elsweyr, the next month being very well documented as my deviator and I waited in Senchal for our chartered ship to depart for the capital, and the following period of my incarceration has been even more directly observed by agents of our magnanimous emperor.

  Yet, although this text at present satisfies the terms of my limited release, I feel obligated to share a few more words on my life after peace was secured, on the fates of my companions up to now, and the conclusions I have reached in regards to the entire experience after some additional months of reflection.

  Our return to Senchal itself was a blur of parades upon our arrival, white seashells lain across the road as a rain of silk tassels flew down over the returning armies of friend and former foe. The following days are a haze of all-day meetings in the jungle palace garden, arbitrating away petty grievances that lingered between some of the spiritually lower rungs of Khajiiti leadership. I should note that the Manes took to each other like fish to water, quickly finding areas of deference to the other, and often speaking back and forth as though sharing a single sustained thought.

  As for the populace, the Khajiit proved as adaptable as they always have, and the opinion of any wife in the bazaar, longshoreman, or tribesman could be summarized as 'if one Mane is good, then two must be better'. A sentiment I share, particularly when concerning two powerful catmen prone to extreme passion and caution respectively.

  One memory of that period is a brilliant as a pearl to me: my wedding. Aiera dressed in a gown of woven white tropical flowers as she emerged from the Lunar Lattice temple's stairwell to join me overlooking the south sea. We took our oaths in the old Khajiit way, against a maroon twilight, and I'll admit that I cried more than the bride at the beauty of the moment, but then so too did many of our guests. Sorvild in particular, the great soft oaf.

  Speaking of which, Sorvild did get his long-term mercenary contract after all. Before I left, I saw to it that the Silversword Company would be contracted to patrol the roads of the northern wastes and establish several small garrisons rest stops to resupply travelers and enforce the Emperor's justice on bandits. I believe he even took Abbard back on as an assistant.

  Of the Rokashes, only the Chevalier attended. After the initial shock of realizing they had a duplicate, the Rokashes never did find a way to get along, their own coarseness compounded by a non-duplicated female they both had designs upon from before their split. The Chevalier proved more able to adapt to the new court arrangement, while the Vizier and his Lion Head Priest minions continued their endless scheming mischief until His Perfection ordered them all to reorganize their structure and mission, and take on the stylings of itinerant monks that served as garbage pickers in the streets of his kingdom, a far more noble pursuit than anything the wretches had been put to previously, and one truly in the service of the people of Elsweyr.

  Prince Findulain and Lady Elindal were sorely missed at the festivities, with only Baron Hoot Hoot representing their contingent (he even gifted me a lovely stick). The prince, having vanished in the night along with his wife and guard following his failed charge, was still missing, and it was rumored only half jokingly that he might still be holding up somewhere in the jungle, under the illusion that the war had not been canceled. It is with the happiest of smiles that I document that the prince's pride was the only confirmed casualty of the siege of Lake Adego.

  Later, about a week before Benezia, my deviator, Aiera, and I lifted anchor for the Imperial City, I met Keyes in a lunar garden on the outskirts of the city. Under the red-sliver light of Masser and Secunda, I gave the bookkeeper the Miser's Mirror. With tears in my eyes I discharged him from my service (if his half assed attempts to bring me my already cold meals could be considered such) after the completion of one final task: return the damned thing to his master, Hermaes Mora. Other Berry and I had both agreed we would sleep easier knowing the fallen tear would no longer be around to tempt mortals with its warped wisdom and strange ability to transmogrify us through reflection.

  Keyes, a friend to the end, agreed. Leaving me with his best regards and Eophicles' Treaty, which he said he had no further use for — having been fully satiated by the ending of my adventure. He still had an albino’s coloring, but was a bit pinker in the flesh than before. He disappeared into the dark mangrove hedges.

  When we did sail back to the imperial capital it was purely as a result of Benezia's hectoring. I was of course as eager as any man to report to his imperial highness, but at this time it was still not clear just how much the unrest and fallacious claims of the year prior had been laid to rest. When we did arrive I was shocked to see a bustling energy had revivified the city, everyone seemed to move about a brisk pace — an effect amplified by the fact that the imperial guard who awaited us at the docks immediately threw me in chains and hauled my deviator and I to the palace dungeons without a warrant.

  ***

  Of my meeting with the Emperor I can only speak briefly, for it was the briefest of encounters. Caius came down to my solitary cell the following morning, dressed in splendid dragon guard armor finished with yellow silk ribbon fastened.

  "Caius," I said, brushing bed straw from my shoulders. "There's been some terrible mistake, you have to help us!"

  He just eyed me like an old ham-hock he'd found moldering in the back of his pantry. He crossed his arms. "And what — pray tell, pilgrim — mistake could that be? Mistaken that you fled Blade confinement in violation of your release terms? Stole from, and then threatened to expose your commanding officer? That you joined a faction in rebellion against imperial rule, consorted with Daedric cultists, all before worming your way into the ear of another leader and unifying the rebels so that they could force an Imperial governor to withdraw in disgrace?"

  Stolen novel; please report.

  "It's not like — you really had to be there! It was the only way to make peace!"

  He raided an eyebrow. "Really?"

  "I swear it, Caius. Just ask Benezia, I'm certain she's sweetened to my methods since she wrote to you on—'

  "Oh I have. And she has. But you have to understand that the ruby throne must consider many points of view in its judgment—"

  "Bullshit, you all sent me in there!"

  "— however," and he took a calming breath before continuing. Perhaps I had pushed too hard. "His majesty is not entirely deaf to your concerns, nor to Luccas’ treachery. After all, his majesty was still incapacitated when the now exiled elements of the council ordered the invasion. But we'll need to convince him you're worth more alive than dead."

  "How?"

  "By talking to him. Right now." And no sooner had he spoken than the gaoler and his henchmen came in to escort me.

  It was a brisk walk up the dungeon stairs, the gaoler pushing me forward with my cuffed hands behind my back. Then the air was fresh and bright as I was led down long ivory marble halls that were silent and with carved and living sentries at the banked windows beyond which I saw the capital brightly lit by an unfettered spring sun. Then up a twisting series of auxiliary staircases until we filed between a dozen Blades armored just as Caius was, each with a hand on the hilt their long curved blades.

  I was thrown knee-first onto the floor of a dining hall immaculately clean and with everything squarely placed as though awaiting a painter, but now intruded upon by yours truly.

  Caius strode to stand beside the sole seated figure at the breakfast table. It was a man with a handsome square jaw and twinkle in his eye, long haired with a certain ponderousness as he surveyed the room. Uriel Septim himself. The falsehood of the malicious lies regarding our emperor's health were apparent to me immediately upon seeing his vigorous features, although I was in too much of a shock to voice my admiration. I did note that my deviator, the other Berry, sat silently on a chair against the wall, eyes pleading with me.

  A lazy breeze blew clean garden-perfumed air over us and Caius bent to whisper into the emperor’s ear.

  Finally, his majesty nodded before lacing his fingers together and speaking in a powerful voice. "What is your name, stranger?"

  "B‐Berry Longfellow, your majesty."

  He gestured to my deviator brother. "This man said the same. He spun quite the tale of how that came to be. But some of those who council me doubt the truth of his words. But I'd like to hear your side of the story, and in your own words, before I make any judgment of you. Every man deserves that much."

  And so I told him, just as I have told you, the story of my life over the past year. My arrival from High Rock, my interrupted research of the Ancestor Moth Cult, my agreement with Caius to travel with Benezia, and everything after. Abbreviated of course, but it was still several minutes that I sweat under the gaze of the most powerful man in the world. I couldn’t bear to meet his eyes, and instead watched the pale blue sky as I bore witness to all I had done.

  When I finished I finally looked at my rightful judge and ruler as he reclined back. "We do have records of your presence here in the capital last summer, petitions to visit the cult… so you really were here while he was there, but not as twins but as… copies of one another? I still don’t completely understand that.”

  “I am a copy of him in truth, your majesty. He is of this world and I am merely a figment of fate’s imagination, drafted into his absence to both fill his role and to keep our duplication from being repeated. A natural counterbalance, if you will.”

  “Fascinating… and you said you studied fate. The stars and their meaning?”

  I nodded. “It is my — our — life’s work. This incident with the mirror was merely an accident.”

  “I too am interested in the stars and their meaning, and what they do to lead men to whatever ends they will fall upon.” He swallowed, seeming to struggle with something beyond my understanding. “The challenges ahead are dire, more than I feel even my waking mind can comprehend.”

  “Your imperial majesty, if it pleases you… my brother and I would be the most loyal of seers in the services of either you or any of your agents. Any threat to your person would be as a fly in our web, your safety assured, I swear on my life…

  He stared at me in silence, drumming his fingers on the table as Caius swayed at his side.

  "Your nature as 'Deviator' and 'Stranger' aside, you have acted at times in ways detrimental to the peace. But your nature is unique and bears study. And your skills could still prove useful for the greater good, just as they have been effective at creating mischief.” His drumming fingers stopped. “And so I have decided. I order the following: Berry Stranger Longfellow and Berry Deviator Longfellow will both be committed to one year under house arrest here at the capital, under the supervision of the Blades and available to serve in their service as needed. During this period you will also document your account of the matter of the Twin Manes, and be a subject of research on your unique properties by my mages. If these conditions are met in a year's time you may petition for release."

  I stumbled up just so I could bow again. "You are wise and generous, sire!”

  "Do you have a home here?"

  "I do not, your majesty, however I do have a dear friend and patron with an estate just beyond the city proper which may suffice."

  ***

  And there you have it, you now know the Stranger's fate, and of stranger fates, I know few.

  I have sat, cramped in one of Marius’ guest rooms, scratching away at this paper for the better part of the summer, whenever the Blades are not pulling me away on some bothersome errand, or the Imperial Thaumaturgs keeping me at the academy to pinch me and my brother's bare asses with calipers or running an electrical current through us just to see what happens. And all the while, as I struggle to complete my writing as penance, I must endure the sound of my deviator brother and Benezia making great plays in the game of love down the hall.

  But now my labor is complete, and I shall go curl up with my beloved Aiera and perhaps massage her feet for she has grown great about the belly as her time draws near. Twins, as the midwife has confirmed, though their exact form remains a mystery even to me. Perhaps I’ll sip some brandy, or perhaps not. Probably the former, for I have promised my wife to take a holiday from the bottle once the children are born, which I don’t doubt will be much of an issue if I am as sleep deprived as I expect I shall be.

  And so, I thank you for reading my story, and wish you the best in your own endeavors. My advice for you (should you have any interest in hearing it after learning how great of a fool I am) is that you learn from my mistakes and not wait until you are in crisis to speak to yourself honestly and as a friend. Although not as physically divided by fate as I am, I still find the people I see in this world to be terribly divided within themselves. We all should write out those blank pages we’ve been pushing from our mind, but only when we are ready. Until then it may be necessary to wear strange masks over familiar faces, masks given by others, and sometimes ones we make for ourselves.

  Signed in truth and sincerity,

  Berry Stranger Longfellow

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