Blackfoot Forest I sense a darkness in you...

Love. Some would claim it had no place in the Dark Brotherhood. Once, Meldresi might have agreed. That was before she had her children however. Watching them grow, encouraging them to become assassins, spies, and priests themselves, seeing how fiercely loyal they were to the Dark Brotherhood and the pack...love had its place in their society. Love meant trust, and sometimes, you needed to trust your fellow Brothers and Sisters.

"Afraid?" She repeated. Fear was something the Dark Brotherhood dished out constantly, keeping their enemies afraid and confused until the moment was right. Fear was what most Brothers and Sisters thought could never touch them, like Slade. But it was quite the opposite. Fear could be very helpful to the dealer. "Afraid of what? Afraid that your feelings would make you weak? Soft?" She encountered the same argument time and time again. "I am afraid all of the time, Slade. That does not stop me." Fear for her children, her pack, her mate. A fear that the north would not forget her, that they would sweep down from their taigas and slaughter them all in revenge. "Love can harden hearts as well as soften them. Yours very well could have done the former, Slade."