What now? I don't know (Valan and Sam)

Trigger warning: Abusive cousins, tragic backstory

A sad but true explanation of Sam's former home life. Thank you Valan for saving her.

I ride through the gates of a the eyrie, the seat of house Arryn, Samantha's family. It's a pretty castle located high on a mountain with spires that look as if they could touch the sky. I dismount from my horse and the guard opens the large mahogany door saying "Ai, nerevarine" which translates to "hail nerevarine!" I nod with a smile and head inside. I walk into a large room that is mostly empty except for a few chairs, tables and bookcases lining the walls. The center of the room is most intriguing, the moon door. A large hollow circle in the floor that when opened plunges anything thrown out of it thousands of feet before meeting an untimely fate at the bottom, death, shattering, never to return. Suddenly hearing a sound behind me I turn around, it's lissa, one of Sam's cousin's that came to live with her when they were children. "Hello Valan, what are you doing here?" She says somewhat uneasily. "I'm looking for Sammie, I haven't seen her in three days I thought she might be here." I respond. "Oh her, we haven't seen her either, she's not here. Off you go" she says as if she's trying to shoo me away. Suddenly we hear a scream, a yelp of pain, a whimper. "Sam!" I manage to say before running up the stairs to a locked door, I manage to pick it in about a minute then burst through to find Samantha Arryn, the heir of the eyrie, locked in chains bruised and bloodied...with her other cousin, the twin of lissa, Lilly, standing over her. My eyes darken as I say " what have you done she's your cousin, this is her home, it's supposed to be a refuge...not a place of abuse!!!!!" The twins leave the room to alert the guards, don't let us leave. I manage to free Sammie but she's in bad shape hardly keeping conscious, the beginnings of a black eye and so much other stuff I couldn't even discribe it all. I pick her up and think of an escape plan, "there's a hidden exit behind the bookcase" Samantha mumbles. I find the exit, get my horse and get as far away as possible as I can. We get to Balmora where I have an apartment as I bring her in, clean up her face as best I can and put her to sleep. I sleep on the floor, not that I mind. The next morning she's awake, she tries to stand but falls and bursts into tears. I sit down on me knees and give her a hug, something I'd normally never do. She buries her face in my shirt and continues to cry, after around half an hour she stops crying and looks at me and says "thanks for saving me, this is why I don't go home." I look back at her and say "no problem, it's not right that they abuse you, your always welcome to stay at my castle or here if you can't go home." A few hours later we go and get something to eat and Sam asks me "what do we do now??" I ponder the question a moment then laugh and say "what now? I don't now, keep adventuring I guess??" She smiles " sure, I'm up for that!"

I hope you "liked" this sad but gets a bit better near the end story

Until next time,
Chloe (Merediths friend from camp)