I wish I had an excuse for dropping down nearly on top of three Thalmor, but the truth is I've got nothing. There I was with an armful of papers, a bag full of purloined spoils and a gormless expression facing off against three high elves who were definitely not friends. In my defence I can say they were just as surprised as I was, and for about two seconds we just stared at each other.
However I managed to recover faster than they did, but only just. Altmer, with Thalmor robes on. They were probably looking for the old man. However just as an added perk, finding a white-haired Bosmer female who had caused so much mayhem at the embassy really got the fire in their bellies, and I could see the recognition and fury in their faces. Two soldiers, one mage, and I could smell the change in the air which let me know a spell was about to be fired my way.
I had just enough time to make sure the papers in my arms weren't in the way, then filled my lungs with air.
"Yol Tuur!"
I hated that Shout, however I was in a hurry - I needed time and I needed distraction. Nothing distracts and surprises an opponent like fire belching out of someone's mouth in a steady stream. The Altmer soldier in front of me shrieked, staggering backwards as he started to cook in his own armour. The magi cursed even more impressively than I had done and managed to get a ward up, but only just whilst the second guard drew his sword. I took the opportunity of their dazzled eyes to duck quickly behind a pillar and stuff the papers in my bag, then readied my blades.
It was a rather nasty game of tag which involved me just charging into the fray best I could, using whatever nasty tactics I had available. The advantage was mine - I knew the terrain, they didn't. All it took was one missed step and the mage was down with my blade in his chest. The second guard got a lucky hit in, but it was only a slice. It got my blood up enough, however and after a rather fierce barrage down he went as well.
Gasping and muttering under my breath, I cleaned my blades and then shoved the bodies into a side corridor. The Thalmor weren't wasting any time, and they were right on the Thieves' doorstep. It wasn't too hard to put together that my work at the Embassy had earned a bounty on my own head now, which would make life even more interesting.
There was no time to rant at wyrd; I made it into the Ragged Flagon, muttering at my ripped leather tunic as I did so. Brynjolf, Karliah and Delvin were waiting for me with rather anxious faces, especially when they saw the blood.
"I'm all right," I said, upending my bag onto the Flagon's table. "Here, try and make some sense out of this. Mercer wasn't there, but I think that's because he's already got his plan worked out."
"I'll take a look," Devlin said, pulling the plans closer to his seat and leaning back to get comfortable.
"You had best grab another tunic, lass," Brynjolf said as he eyed the tear across my arm, but I waved him off.
"Some business has just become rather pressing, and I need to take care of it. I'll be back once I have, but now it's my turn for a request: there's a rumour there's an old man down here in the waterways - crazy fellow. Anyone heard of him?"
Brynjoff raised both brows. "What, him? Yes, there's a few forgotten people who end up drifting down here. He's just outside the Ragged Flagon actually, upper level, a few doors down. But have a care, I've heard there's a lot of activity out there. Dirge said he's seen some Altmer around."
Wish I had known that before, but then I hadn't asked. I sighed, then nodded. "Okay, thanks. I'm on it, Brynjoff, don't worry."
"I'll worry all I please," Brynjoff grunted. "But something tells me you'll be fine."
"I know, I know, Nords and their wyrd, eh?" I chuckled softly, thumped the man on the shoulder with my fist and strode through towards the secret exit out back.
Now in theory I could have rounded the fellow up and dragged him through the Guild and out back, but I didn't know how many Thalmor were about. Also, as important as this Esbern may have been I wasn't going to break Thieves' Guild code for him - not even my husband knew where the Flagon was! I decided it was best to go to the Bee and Barb and round up Vilkas, so I made my way to the market place before nearly been stopped in my tracks when I saw him come out of the Bee and Barb, singing rather drunkenly and swaying his way down the street.
I frowned - this wasn't like Vilkas. Was he drugged? Or...maybe....
I didn't halt my stride as he entered the market square, and he didn't look at me even once. My heart was hammering in my chest, but I kept it together with my head down as I pretended to fiddle with a clasp on my new tunic. Abruptly I made a turn toward the stairs down to the sewer level, then ducked into a doorway and waited, pulling my cloak round me and reaching carefully for my bow.
I could hear Vilkas singing rather tonelessly, warbling out some sort of Nordic ballad - and then can go on for ages, believe me - before he broke off with a hiccup. There was a rather gutwrenching sound, followed by the sound of a drunken Nord being rather sick over the moat sides. I cringed - it was an impressive act, if act it was. I certainly hoped it was. I could hear Vilkas stumping on booted feet as staggered down the steps, and I tapped the end of my bow upon the stones. Not a single twitch from him as he mumbled and warbled along, then he ducked abruptly into the doorway with me, hastily reaching for the door and dragging me inside into darkness.
"Someone poison you?" I whispered, eyes narrowed to slits in the gloom.
"Old trick I learned in my well-spent youth," he muttered, coughing into his hand and straightening up - the playacting was done and he was on the full alert, drawing his blade and walking back a few paces from the door. "Waste of a good belly full of mead, that was, but figured a drunk Nord would be easy to believe."
"I'll buy you a jug later," I murmured quietly as I put an arrow to the string, covering the door. "What was it?"
"Altmer, but they were in official Thalmor robes; two of them watching the gate. Heard the guards say there were a lot coming through Riften today," Vilkas rumbled, spitting to one side. "I managed to duck out but wasn't sure if I'd find you - I didn't know the way, so just prayed to the Divines I was on the right path. Where to?"
"First task is done, now we're onto the second. Back this way," I said, tapping Vilkas's arm as I motioned to the labyrinth before us. "We've got an old man to find. If we can get to him - as that's who the Thalmor want, I'm just the icing on the sweet roll - can you get him out?"
"I'm a Companion, love, I can do it," Vilkas said, his ice-blue eyes gleaming sharp and strong. The wolf blood may have been out of his veins, but he was still a fighter through and through.
On we went into the tunnels. At first, we seemed all right enough but our instincts were singing. I crouched and checked my bow again, Vilkas gathering himself behind me. I focussed, and murmured one of the Words which amplified my hearing, and listened. Skeevers, water...and two hearts beating rather loudly round the corner. I put up two fingers over my shoulder, and Vilkas nodded, coming alongside me.
We crept round the corner, and then charged as soon as we saw our quarry - Vilkas went in swift and low, straight toward the armoured fighter, and I focussed on the magi, concentrating on trying to get there before he managed to cast a spell.
"Wuld!"
The world blurred as I rushed forward with such speed Vilkas later swore he hadn't been able to see me for several moments - I was standing over 10 meters away, and then I was there lowering my shoulder and bringing my unworldly speed and mass beneath the Altmer mage's sternum. A shield spell tends to protect against arrows, some blades and blunt bows, but not the kind of force I had behind me in my sprint. The force of it jarred my own shoulder even though I prepared myself for it - but it sent the magi flying backwards with a bone-rattling crunch, dazing him as he crumpled to the floor. The Nightingale Blade did the rest.
Vilkas had downed his own opponent and sheathed his blade. "What by all the Nine did you -do- at the Thalmor Embassy?"
"I really, really made them angry," I replied as I made my way over to cover the stairs to the upper levels.
"Then I love you more than ever."
"Thank you. Up this way."
Two more scouting parties later we found a rather sorrowful "front porch" tucked away just outside the Flagon - a woman cackling and muttering in her hovel, and a man humming tonelessly behind a wooden door. There was a far door on the end which, while old, was obviously reinforced with steel and iron, and I counted at least five locks that I could see.
Vilkas kept watch as I strode forward, trying to rap on the door quietly but hopefully loudly enough to actually be heard as it had to have been an inch thick.
An eye-level plate slid to one side, and a querulous male voice called out rather muffled.
"What? Who? Go away, there's no one I want to see!"
"Sir, I've been sent by a friend - "
"Ha! I don't have any, so be off!" The plate was starting to slide to.
"Delphine told me to find you," I said hastily. There was silence from the other side of the door, and nothing moved.
"How can I believe you?" the man's voice mumbled.
"She told me to say to to you, "Where were you on the 30th of Frostfall"? " I replied, hoping we'd get a move on. I had no idea how many Thalmor were down here, but Vilkas and I had to try and drag an old man out of here without him dying, and I worried about the odds.
"Where was I....well now," the voice beyond the door mused, and I sighed in relief as I could hear the change of tone. "Yes, yes, where was I indeed? All right, just a moment, give a moment."
Quite a few locks later, the door swung open on the hovel beyond, and the man within it. Nervous, half-starved, and mumbling to himself, but with an intensity to his gaze which wasn't madness, well, not entirely anyway.
"Come in, come in - and your friend there?" he nodded to Vilkas, who was still scanning the corridor."
"He's here to help," I replied as I stepped into the tiny room - packed wall to wall with manuscripts, odds and ends of food and a low mattress, but mostly books. "We need to get you out, there are people searching for you. I am to bring you to Delphine."
"So, someone has finally decided to listen, have they? Well, well, better late than never - although that's not strictly true. If it's late, it's too late."
"I'm not sure what you mean," I said, trying to keep one eye on the door while the elder scholar shuffled round the room, picking up scrolls and them putting them back.
"What? Doesn't anyone read anymore? Alduin! His return, coming to devour the world!"
The blank stare I gave Esbern didn't please him, and he rambled on in a way I couldn't quite understand, although what I did manage to grasp I didn't particularly like. The black dragon was a bigger threat than I had thought, and it seemed his coming was foretold. It also sounded as if he was probably going to succeed. Something about prophecies and world endings, and even while he carried on trying to give me a lesson in history, I was aware of Vilkas staring back impatiently.
"Sir, we really don't have much time," I interjected as smoothly as I could. "Altmer are looking for you, we've got to get out."
"Mmmmhr, yes yes, let me just...well it was here..."
I managed to keep my patience, but only just. However once I managed to get the pack onto the old man's back - he insisted, he wouldn't let me carry anything - he then took up a rather gnarled staff and we stepped out the door.
"I'm pretty sure I heard something down there that wasn't a skeever," Vilkas said as he gestured to Esbern. "We need to hurry."
And how! We nearly walked straight into a small envoy of Thalmor, but then Esbern pulled out his own tricks - it turned out the rambling scatterbrain was a rather gifted mage, and he called forth several elementals with such a casual ease even Vilkas was impressed. If Delphine was a Blade, perhaps Esbern was of the same ilk - he certainly had combat experience, and rather than try to protect a doddering old man, Vilkas and I found ourselves struggling to keep up.
"Ah yes, this way, I know a secret path - and you may be one of the Circle, young lady but I've been hiding a long time."
Indeed, he found a way I hadn't known about, and we were up and out in no time into Riften's comparatively clean air.
"Well done, you two," Esbern said with a smile as Vilkas and I came panting up behind - offering us praise like an indulgent parent praising a child's scrawlings. "Now then, which way?"
"I'll take you, magi," Vilkas said, having recovered now. "We've horses waiting and I'll get you where you need to go."
"You're not coming after all that?" Esbern asked, both brows raised, but I shook my head.
"I've got a task or two waiting here for me, so I'm going to sort that," I replied. "But I'll meet you both in Riverwood."
"Be careful," Vilkas murmured softly to me before taking his leave.
"Always!" I gave him my best smile as we parted, but did so with a qualm. I hoped Esbern didn't go telling Vilkas anything about Alduin - it would only worry the man. It worried me and I was the Dragonborn! But for now, I was just Dreema, and I was still fast on the track of a thief.
Comments