CHAPTER ONE: THE GATE

Constance

Constance sat alone in the living room of her small wooden house, patching a hole in the pants belonging to her young son. According to the imaginative five-year-old, the pants had been torn the day before by an ogre who had strayed close to their home. Kole and his puppy, a grey hound with black spots he named "Wolfy", chased it back to the mountains north of Bruma before it could do anymore damage to his clothes.

"Sure you didn't rip them on your own?" she asked after he completed his wild tale half an hour earlier.

Kole shrugged. "Maybe." He suddenly whipped out his wooden toy sword and brandished it in a heroic stance. "I guess I might've done it when I chased the monster away."

Wolfy barked and took up a similar stance next to Kole.

Constance smiled and ruffled the child's dark curly locks. He responded with a joy-filled giggle before changing into fresh clothes and running back outside to defeat another ogre.

"So courageous," she said to herself after repairing the small pair of trousers. "Just like his father."

Constance exhaled deeply, trying to re-collect her emotions before they escaped from her control. Baurus, her husband and Kole's father, had last came home two months earlier with tragic news that confirmed the rumors she had been hearing before his return.

Uriel Septim VII was dead.

He had blamed himself entirely for the Emperor's assassination. Baurus had been a personal guard of Uriel; one of the highest positions a Blade could be granted and the most important, despite him being one of the youngest Blades. Constance had been unable to keep him from beating himself up over it, even though she had constantly reassured him it wasn't his fault.

Kole had made his father's return much better, however. Baurus had brought a puppy that would later be named Wolfy and the wooden sword that Kole now carried with him everywhere. All of Baurus's guilt and sorrow had seemed to fade when he interacted with his son.

Baurus had only stayed for a couple days, having mentioned something about hunting down members of the cult behind the Emperor's death. He had left for Cloud Ruler Temple very early in the morning without saying goodbye.

Five days later she had heard about the Oblivion Gate that opened in Kvatch and how the city was razed to the ground by the Daedra that had poured out of it; about a week later news spread that a brave Nordic warrior had closed it and cleared out the city alongside the remaining guards.

That Nord, whose name never seemed to be mentioned by anyone, was dubbed the "Hero of Kvatch."

"Mommy, what's wrong?" a young yet concerned voice asked. Constance turned her head to see Kole staring at her from across the room with a worried expression. It wasn't until then that Constance realized she had been lightly crying.

While wiping away her tears she continued to look at Kole, noticing for what felt like the millionth time how much he resembled his father. He was practically an exact replica of Baurus, only younger. They shared the same medium brown skin tone and warm, inviting brown eyes. His hair, however, was curly like Constance's.

"Nothing sweetie," Constance lied.

Kole gave her a skeptical look before running up to her and wrapping his arms around her in a loving embrace. "Is it about Daddy?"

I can't hide anything from you, can I? "Yes, Kole. Sometimes it's hard to be away from him for so long. If I didn't have you, I fear I would go crazy."

"I love you too," Kole said, nuzzling deeper into his mother's chest.

She held him for a few more minutes, only letting go when she heard his stomach rumble. Constance had to catch herself from cursing in front of Kole when she realized she had neglected to make dinner. She quickly threw together a simple stew and gave plenty to Kole until he looked like he would burst.

After eating, Constance gave Kole a bath. His face was covered in mud so she had to scrub extra-hard there. Wolfy watched from a distance, as if half-expecting a bath himself, while Kole splashed around and soaked the floor underneath him.

Constance dried him off and put him to bed at around ten at night. He fell asleep the second his head hit the pillow. Must be tired from chasing ogres. She smiled at the thought as she left his room. Wolfy was curled up at the end of the bed on top of Kole's feet.

She sewed a new button onto Kole's coat where "a savage wolf" had stolen the previous one before retiring to her bed. Constance lay down on the left side of her large bed, and though she had grown accustomed to it, she felt lonely on the large mattress by herself.

Dear Baurus,

I do not know when you will receive this, nor do I know if you've received the other three letters I've written since you left. I hope you're well. Kole and I are, though sometimes I wish we didn't live so far north of Bruma. The two hours of walking tires him out, and usually we return back home the same day. He's had such an isolated life with no one to talk to but me, except for whenever you are home.

He and that dog you brought him are closer than you and I. I feel happy for him about his love he has for Wolfy, but sad at the same time because of the gap between us.

Kole is acting and looking more like you every single day. He carries that sword with him everywhere he goes. He's slain monsters and conquered armies with it, though he is usually too modest to brag about his achievements.

I'm sure he'll want to follow in your footsteps once he is older. Perhaps you can train him yourself, in between your assignments. He hasn't shown any magical abilities, so it's possible he has inherited my inability to cast spells. Or maybe he is just a late bloomer.

Either way, at least I won't have to worry about him burning the house down anytime soon.

An Oblivion Gate appeared a couple miles south of Bruma sometime last week, if you weren't already aware. I know you were raised in this house, but I fear for Kole's safety. Should any more gates open up near here we'll have to flee. If we cannot be kept in Cloud Ruler Temple I'll take Kole and myself to my sister in Chorrol.

Please come home soon, or at least write back. I can hardly stand not knowing if you are dead or alive.

With all of my heart,

Constance

Constance re-read her letter several time to ensure she had written down everything she want to say. She had spent most of the morning working on the letter, having restarted it several times.

This one, however, was more or less perfect. Constance folded the paper and tucked it into an envelope labeled "Baurus".

I'll deliver this to Olaf tomorrow. Olaf was one of the undercover Blades posted in Bruma. He had accepted her letters to her husband in the past and would most certainly do it again, for a modest fee. At least, I hope he's been delivering them.

The door in front of her flew open and Kole came charging through the doorway from the outside world. He was grasping the right side of his face with blood covered hands. His eyes were red, likely from crying. He tried to look unfazed but was doing a poor job.

"What happened?!" Constance asked as she knelt down in front of him with a clean cloth to wipe away the blood. She moved his hands and saw his wound stretched down from the middle of his check down to his jaw. The scratch was jagged, almost like a lightning bolt had been etched into his flesh. She thanked the Divines that it didn't look too deep, but Constance suspected he would have a scar there for the rest of his life.

"I found a small monster across the road," Kole began to explain. He flinched each time Constance put pressure on his cheek but he didn't cry out. "I walked up to it and it scratched me. It laughed at me and licked its claws, so I killed it with my sword."

"What did it look like?"

Kole pointed at Wolfy. "Like that."

Constance turned to the dog and nearly jumped. At the dog's feet was a small, ugly creature with bright red skin and small horns that were attached to its skull. Splinters were stuck in its head, which was bloody and mangled from being hit with Kole's sword.

She immediately recognized it as an scamp, a Daedra from Oblivion.

"Where did you find that?" Constance asked slowly.

"Right across the road," Kole answered.

Constance peered over her son's shoulder through the open door to look outside. It was then that she noticed the sky and everything under it had an orange tint—a tell-tale sign of an Oblivion Gate.

Hoping that she was wrong, Constance looked further away to see if her suspicion was right. She gasped when she saw the massive portal into Oblivion sitting in front of the woods north of her house. She could only see the bottom half of it but could easily tell it was massive in size—at least double the height of the largest tree behind it.

Every couple of seconds a Daedra would step out of the gate. Most of them were scamps; a few were more humanoid in shape with red skin and heavy black armor. Constance couldn't recall the name of that type of Daedra, but that wasn't a major concern at the time.

Kole looked over his shoulder and stared at the portal, seemingly noticing it for the first time as well. "Mommy, what is that?" he asked when his eyes returned to his mother.

Constance ignored his question until she had a bandage properly applied to his cheek. "It is a bad thing, Kole. It is a door to a bad place."

"Did the monster come from it?"

She nodded. "There's going to be more monsters coming for us. We only have a little bit of time before they find us. We don't want them to find us."

Kole's eyes shone with immediate understanding, despite his age. "Or they will kill us."

For a brief second, Constance thought about lying to Kole so that he'd be less scared. She dismissed the idea, knowing that he was too smart to be fooled. "I will do everything in my power to keep that from happening. But we have to leave now."

"Okay," he said with determination. Again Constance couldn't help looking at her son and seeing a young Baurus in his place.

"Shut and lock the door," she ordered. Once he did so she said, "I will be right back and then we will leave for Bruma. Do not move unless the monsters get in; hide if that happens."

Constance sprinted to her room as fast as her legs would allow. Once there, she retrieved a sheathed iron longsword from under her bed and strapped it to her waist. She then reached into her closet for her fur coat and pulled it over her dress as she ran back to Kole.

Kole was standing exactly where he had been before, only now he was holding a kitchen knife in his right hand. Constance wasn't very keen about him carrying an actual weapon rather than his toy sword, but they both knew the situation called for it.

Wolfy, like always, stood at the boy's side. Even though the dog wasn't fully grown, he looked more ready to fight than either Kole or Constance.

"Are you ready?" Constance asked. Kole silently nodded. She moved towards the door, unlocking it slowly before placing her hand on the knob. She turned back to Kole and whispered, "stay low to the ground and as far to the left side of the road as you can. Listen to all of my instructions as quickly as possible. Do not make any loud noises. Understand?"

"I do," Kole answered in a tone even quieter than hers.

Constance exhaled deeply before twisting the doorknob. She opened it just enough to peek outside. All of the Daedra she could see remained within close proximity to the gate. As far as she could tell, the imp that had attacked Kole had been the only one that ventured far from the gate.

Cautiously she pushed the door completely open. After looking to the left and right and finding nothing, Constance urged Kole to follow her outside. They both tip-toed in a crouched position to the snow-covered road. While maintaining a constant watch on the Oblivion Gate, Constance began leading her son and Wolfy in the direction of Bruma.

Constance glanced over her shoulder to check on Kole. His attention seemed to be fixed on the left side of their house in the form of a frightened stare. She followed his line of sight—

—and barely rolled out of the way of a fire bolt. Six Daedra—four scamps and two humanoid Daedra—were racing towards them from behind the house.

She returned to her feet as fast as she could and charged back towards the house. "Come on!" Constance cried out to her son as she grabbed his empty hand and dragged him to the house.

Once she, Kole, and Wolfy were inside the kitchen, Constance slammed the door shut and locked it—placing her back against it to add even more support. Seconds later a barrage of pounding and yelling in an alien tongue started on the opposite side of the door.

"Let's kill them!" Kole shouted above the noise.

"We can't!" she yelled back. "They're stronger than us! We have to hide; it's only a matter of time before they get in or burn the house down."

"What do we do?" Kole asked frantically.

Constance racked her brain for an answer, trying to think of somewhere to hide. Under the table? No, that's too obvious. Under one of our beds? No that's just as bad! Maybe we can sneak out a back window? But what if there are more Daedra there?

The basement!

Again she grabbed Kole's hand, this time taking him into the living room. In the far left hand corner of the room was a hidden hatch. Constance flung it open to reveal a wooden staircase that descended into a small, underground basement she mainly used for storage.

"Get in there," she directed Kole. Her son and Wolfy followed Constance's directions and entered the dark basement.

"Come on, Mommy," Kole said from somewhere in the underground room.

Constance hesitated. The Daedra will rip the house apart until they find someone.

"Mommy?" Kole repeated. A creaking sound started, alerting Constance that he was climbing back up the wooden stairs.

Just as his face emerged from the darkness, Constance decided what she would do, what she had to do. "Do not make a sound," she told him. "Do not come out unless I tell you. Once I shut the door, lock it from inside. Do not open it for any reason unless I tell you. Okay?"

Kole looked confused. "When are you coming back?"

She couldn't look at him as she said, "as soon as I can. Promise me that you'll stay here."

"But—"

"Promise!"

"I'll stay here, I promise," Kole replied.

Constance lowered the hidden door, pausing only just before she couldn't see Kole anymore to say, "I love you." She closed the door completely, waiting to hear the click of the lock before she pushed a dresser over the hatch to make it less noticeable.

From the kitchen she heard the door being forced open. She silently prayed to the Nine Divines before she stood up and quietly moved towards the Daedra.

Two scamps currently occupied the kitchen. One was sitting on the table, tearing apart the letter she had written for Baurus. The second was hanging from the small chandelier hanging from the ceiling. Neither of them had noticed Constance enter the room.

She crept up on the scamp sitting on the table. Just as she raised her sword, it sniffed the air and turned around. It screeched a warning to its fellow Daedra as she sliced through the small demon.

A sharp pain erupted in her shoulder, likely the claws of the other scamp. Constance spun around and swiped at the hanging creature. She clipped its arm, causing it to fall out of the air and onto the ground.

Constance tried to stomp on the scamp but it narrowly dodged her leather boot. It slashed at her again but only managed to rip the hem of her dress. She feigned the sword to the left, tricking the scamp to move right. Quickly she swept the sword around, cutting off the demon's head in the process.

There was a growl behind her. Suddenly Constance remembered more than scamps had chased her and Kole back into the house. She instinctively ducked, spotting a black sword pierce the air where her head had been.

She leaped back, knocking both herself and the humanoid Daedra to the ground. Constance jumped onto the monster's chest and thrust the blade into its neck, watching it bleed and struggle to cut her with its clawed fingers.

A lightning bolt struck the middle of Constance's chest. She fell onto her back, dropping her sword in the process.

The other humanoid Daedra appeared above her with a sadistic smirk on its face. "Where is the smaller one?" it asked in a distorted voice, as if it were speaking from underwater.

Constance was stunned by both the electricity that had shot through her body and the Daedra talking, but she managed to spit out, "I sent him into the woods. I was a distraction so he could get away."

Take the bait. Please... take the bait.

"I will find it," the Daedra taunted.

Thank the gods. Right before the Daedra's sword pierced into her heart, she begged the Divines to protect her son until Baurus could arrive.

AUTHOR'S NOTE: And so Kole's origin finally begins to unfold. For anyone who does not know who Kole is, then you should know this is a prequel to my other story, "The Nerevarine's Return." You can read this without needing to ever read the other without getting confused, but I'd prefer if you read both.

I plan to alternate between my two stories for when a new chapter will be posted, so updates to each one will take about two weeks, give or take how fast I am at writing the newest chapter for each.

Thanks to harmoniedusoir for being my beta-reader for both of my stories. Leave your review below. Or don't, if you don't want to. But seriously, do it.