This story was going to be called Femme Fatale before it had been published.
A very long opening chapter with a lot of information.
Right now, there was a band of criminals loose in Skyrim- an awful group of such infamy that has not existed since the golden age of the Dark Brotherhood. The criminals- these killers- have succeeded in dozens of murders within seven holds in not even two months time. By now, all nine holds have been made aware of this faction; all making desperate efforts to catch individuals in this group before they struck again. All efforts had been pountless though with how scruptous the murderers were about avoiding detection. There wasn't even any consistent pattern or rate of murder to allow some extent of predictability. A killer would strike one night in the Reach and three days later someone in the Pale would find their family's throats slit in broad daylight. The Butcher of Windhelm, who had been brought to justice half a year ago, killed only young women. is organization, by all means, seemed took the lives of whomever he or she pleased whenever it pleased them.
The only way murders and mysterious deaths or disappearances could ever be attributed to this faction were through the sigils that would be left with victims or carved or written onto surfaces near by them.
You could see how the killers, the Wayward as they had been named by the holds, were changing Skyrim. Everywhere you went, you could see how guarded people were becoming. Seeing children playing out on the streets or women gathering upon their porches to talk was becoming a rarer sight with every week. Few of those who had business to conduct outside of their home to their time completing it before returning to their families. Travel was coming to a halt. Demand for the newest and highest quality locks had exploded and smiths were becoming buried under orders, unable to keep up. Guards stopped to bagger every unfamiliar face or funny look with questions.
Vilkas had to stop himself from groaning aloud for the twentieth time that day.
The worst band of organized assassins in ages was out there, yet here he was, galloping along to Solitude. And what for: a petty thieving problem! To make matters worse, he was asked by Kodlak to bring their newest whelp, Jay, with him. And he would not disrespect the Harbinger by refusing to follow through such a simple request.
The Companions were looking into the murders, of course. Skjor and Aela had volunteered to set aside their usual contract work for the time being and start their own private search for those within the Wayward, hoping the advantages they had in being werewolf and skilled warrior-hunters would be of use.
"Vilkas?" Jay asked uneasily.
Vilkas groaned this time. The worst part about this whole damn trip to Solitude was that he had been asked to drag the newest whelp, Jay, with him.
"What?" he snapped.
"Uh... Not that it really matters or anything, but are you okay? Uh, wait I didn't mean it that way..." he sighed. "J-just, ugh! After Kodlak gave you this job you looked pretty angry."
"I'm not." he scowled.
"Are you sure? You've been sighing ever since we left Whiterun. And that was yesterday."
"I have not."
"No, you have."
Vilkas snapped his head around and glared murderously at the whelp.
"Never mind, then." Jay quickly said. He straightened himself and turned to look ahead.
"We're... here," the runt mumbled once the city was in sight.
Vilkas' only reply was in deepening his scowl and, until they made it to the city gate, said nothing.
"Halt! Who are you two? Why are you here?" A guard badgered them.
The two had already stopped their horses before the guard had spoken, but it did not stop him and three others from briskly approaching them.
"I had asked you-"
"I am Vilkas, a member of the Circle within the Companions. I'm sure you've heard of me." The man answered as he dismounted his horse. He planted his feet on the ground and looked challengingly at the one who had questioned him.
The guard stood his ground, "And what is your business in Solitude?"
"I am here to aid Solitude in catching an elusive thief pestering the city. On request of Aldis, Solitude's Captain of Sentinel, if I might add."
"Very well. Who is this, then?" The guard gestured to Jay.
The fool opened his mouth to answer for himself, but was cut off by Vilkas.
"This is Jay. Our most recent whelp."
"Is that so?" The guard chortled.
Vilkas frowned deeper. "Yes, it is so."
"Alright, let's get you inside."
-/\/|X|\/\-
The two had been privileged to stable their horses within city with those belonging to the local guards thanks to their status as Companions. Afterwards they had left to visit the office of Solitude's head of law. The entire time, Jay had remained silent, so Vilkas had not thought that it was necessary to remind him to hold his tongue. But not long after they entered Aldis' office and had been offered a seat by the Captain, Vilkas realized he had made a mistake.
"Do not insult the Captain, new blood." Vilkas spat at Jay in a hushed tone, trying to control his irritation with the boy. This was why he hated bringing others along with him on contracts, especially these blundering daisies.
He continued with his chastisement, "Of course the Captain is sure that they have exhausted all other options in trying to catch the thief! They would not be requesting our help, otherwise."
"But I had just-"
Vilkas' gaze bore into the boy, challenging him to speak any further.
"Never mind, then." He said quickly.
Vilkas looked back to Aldis, signaling for the man to continue.
Aldis cleared his throat. "And since we have exhausted all other options, we've no choice but to try... a stake out."
"A stake out?"
The Captain chuckled, a low rumble in his chest. "I know how you feel about these things, Vilkas. Stake outs, ambushes. Attacking from the shadows like an honor-less coward. And to be honest, I think the same. So believe me when I say that this is always our last resort when dealing with a thief."
"I take your word for it, Captain. So let's hear about this stake out of yours."
The Captain moved to pull a narrow, lacquered wooden box out from his desk and place it before the warriors.
"Thieves can be a tricky breed when they happen to have minds wittier than their tongues," he said. "But a rat is still a rat, no matter how clever they might be. All you need is a little bait and, suddenly, there's no difference between the sharp and the dull."
Vilkas couldn't put his finger on it, but he found something about the man's speech off. He decided to disregard it for now, though.
Aldis opened the box, revealing a dozen tear-drop shaped gemstones of various shades of blue, each the size of a hen's egg.
Aldis continued as Vilkas observed the jewels, "'The Petals of Berenziah,' this little treasure is called. Ancient blue diamonds mined from Morrowind- one of the rarest form of gemstone in Tamriel. It's said that these were once set in the first crown that had ever belonged to queen Berenziah, which was a gift from her lover, Tiber Septim. There's no explaination for how the gems ultimately ended up in the poccession of the Septim family. Nevertheless, they are still a priceless treasure of the Septim family and their value goes far beyond their simple material worth, as you can well imagine."
"See, I know you choose to risk some sort of wealth because there is no other way to guarantee the greedy sneak won't be seeking lesser loot somewhere other than where we want. What I want to know is-"
"How can we expect the sneak to walk into our trap when they aren't even the slightest bit aware about what we're luring them with,'" Aldis asked, recieving a nod from the Companion.
Vilkas was actually going to ask why he had choosen such a pricelss treasure to act as his bait. Of course the item had to be attractive if the trap was ever going to work. But it he seemed to be really over-doing it by risking something so invaluable as a Septim dynasty relic. Again, Vilkas decided to disregard the Captain's odd behavior. This wasn't the time or the place to question him.
"Aye," Aldis continued. "The only way we can insure that the thief will be where we want tonight is if we can make sure our bait is better than any loot they can get else where.
"And as for your point," Aldis grinned conspiratorially. "We made sure that the thief learned about this fine fortune. As I had asked her, the Jarl paraded our streets at mid-morning today, wearing these gems which had been set in a simple crown of gold wire for the event. She did damn excellently in making sure they didn't go unnoticed as well. The woman never wasted an oppurtunity to tell anyone she stopped to chat with about the diamonds and their history. Even if the thief never saw them, thanks to the amount of excited talk the jewels have generated with our citizens, the thief surely has by now heard what treasure is being locked away within the Blue Palace tonight.
"I had spent the past three days rigorously planning the traps we will plant throughout the castle."
Aldis moved to retrieve a roll of paper on a shelf behind his desk, spreading it out on the surface as he continued speaking. The roll was a map of the Blue Palace's entire campus, displaying the whole courtyard and giving details on the interior of the castle.
"I've had Falk inform me of all spy holes and listening pipes in the structure's walls as well as every hidden room we can hide guards in. I've consulted the royal mage, who has whipped up a few traps of her own while weaving illusions over other conventional snares so they'll be unseen. She even found a little trick she's applied to them which will alert her every time a trap is activated. I am going to capture this weasel before midnight is upon us.
"Within the castle there will be three layers of defense in the form of traps. Since the rat has already broke into the palace, we will keep the amount of guards patroling the halls as it was then. The rest will be stationed in hidden rooms, so if the thief springs a trap and manages to get out of it, we will have the guards alerted. They will then come out of hiding and begin their own searches. We are hoping that surprising the thief with a sudden doubling of the number of guards will be sufficient to trap them, at the very least.
"If they still somehow manage to get by all that. Then our last hope is the patrols we will have stationed outside. After these past few weeks, it's come to seem that my men can't handle vigilantly watching anything outside of a five foot radius around them. That's why want to have you, Vilkas, stationed outside here," Aldis pointed to an area on the map outside of the place. "I want you to check in with me at the palace courtyard no later than dusk, tonight. Bring the lad there with you if you want."
It only took a moment for Vilkas to imagine the milksop opening his month, distracting him from his watch duty. And after today it was clear that the needle-bodied dimwit couldn't keep his mouth clamped even when it mattered.
"I rather have him elsewhere," Vilkas replied.
"Hmm. Well, we could use another person right in this area."
After Jay nodded his understanding of his orders, Aldis began rolling the map back up to place it back on his shelf.
"So, what are your thoughts on this plan?"
For a moment, the two Companions only continued to look at the man as if he had gone mad.
"It all a little excessive," Jay said uneasily.
Even though Vilkas had been sharing similar thoughts with the boy, the fact that he had either the audicity or ignorance to voice them still incensed him.
"For a thief, this is-"
"Get out, Jay," Vilkas said.
"Oh, no! I wasn't meaning to be rude, I just-"
Vilkas swept his head to the side and stared at the new blood.
"Get out, Jay."
Jay looked down and quickly stood. "Alright, then."
Once Jay was out of the room, Vilkas kneeled forward in his chair and rubbed his temples, tiredly.
"My apologies," he said to the Captain.
"Aye, but the lad is right. And you, of all people, know it." Aldis slumped back down into his chair, his appearance mirroring the mental exhuastion displayed by Vilkas.
Vilkas did his best to hide his annoyance and detestation with the whole situation when he spoke.
"Why, Aldis," he asked. "I know you're a rational man and that I can trust your judgment, but this is unlike you. Every time you've mentioned the criminal today, you've spoken as if your city is being plagued by an assassin or devil rather than a common thief, albeit an elusive one. And me? You had requested me to come here by name. What makes you think you will need me for this trap of yours? I do respect you, Captain, and will do any favor you ask of me. But for a job that requires little more than waiting and being alert to one's surroundings, just about any damn fool would have been satisfactory. Hell, for the amount you paid to get me to come here, you could have hired twenty pairs of hands."
The Captain nodded, frowning for a moment before he opened his eyes and replied tiredly.
"Make no mistake, Companion, this is no ordinary sneak. I've never seen anything like it. This person will break into homes night or day going utterly unnoticed. He or she fools locks of master-make without leaving any signs of wear left on the faces of them. They manage to pluck rings and pendants, even whole meters of chain strung with gems, off people while they dine with friends at pubs and inns. Windows show no signs of being tampered with and foot prints are never left in the plots of dirt outside of the homes. Alertful lines remain unsprung. Shingles remain untampered. And my jail lies empty.
"We might as well be chasing a phantom with the way they move through rooms without anyone catching a sound or sight of them, apparently. Whether or not the people are awake doesn't seem to matter either. Oh, and neither does being a house-mutt. Little beasts have been of no help whatsoever. No matter what it is, the thief gets by just the same."
"You had never told me how long this has been going on?"
"Three weeks. But we should have been able to nab them by now- or at least find a few traces to their identity with how restless they've been!"
"Just how restless, exactly?"
"Several sprees a day, from dawn to dusk. Any hour, really. Pockets, homes, shops, museums, even our palace! We've had more than enough opportunities to capture or track this pest with that amount of activity!"
"Do you know if the thief is working alone? I couldn't imagine a thief having so much skill or luck that they could accomplish so much on their own."
"It's a possibility but one that we're all finding hard to fathom. They just seem to have too much knowledge about where they raid and what to avoid to not have some sort of informant at the very least.
"Could it be the Thieves Guild?"
Aldis scoffed. "Those two-bit bandits haven't had the spine to infiltrate my fortress for nearly a decade now. I can't rule them out, but I have my reasons to doubt that it's them. When things started to go bottom-up for the Guild, they had all learned damn fast how hard it was to get away with theft in Solitude. But even if it were, our problem doesn't become any more solvable. They're still scum and they will not get away with what they've done here. I will have them locked in a cage and merrily slice through the tendons of their wrists when this is all said and done."
"Your interest in all this... it looks pretty personal."
"Personal? This city is my pride and joy. In my time over-seeing it, Solitude had always boasted the lowest rates of property crime in the bloody country! There was nowhere in Skyrim safer for wealthy individuals or merchants. That was the reason we always had more merchants dealing luxury wares in these walls than in all of the other capitals combined!
"Suddenly, a thief walks into my city and in a matter of weeks steals over 70,000 septims in goods from the citizens I've vowed to protect. In less than a month, they take away a reputation that I've fought to earn and protect for the past thirty years of my life. And who's ever doing this, is doing so to taunt me. I can't explain it, but they're toying with me, I just know it.
"This can't go on for much longer, Companion. That's why you're here. That blasted, over-fussing lass for a Jarl we have here and her nanny have already lost faith in my competence. I had only requested you to come here because it was what Elisif had demanded of me."
"They think that I'll be more likely to solve this issue than you?"
"Who knows what those two think? But, aye. That I can imagine. Those of you in the Circle are well-deserving of your rank. I don't know what it is about you, but you all happen to be the best when it comes to tracking or weeding out criminals. I've heard the stories, when I haven't seen it myself. Whether it's some special trick or secret you've got, or just unfailing dumb luck, we can sure use some of it tonight... I could use it. The Jarl and her Steward aren't the only people within this city who are starting to question my capability as Captain of Solitude's Sentinel. I've gotten some nasty words from some victims who have gotten tired of waiting patiently."
"I see..."
"The thief must be caught tonight, Vilkas. There is no other option for me at this point."
"It won't end any other way, Captain. I promise you. We'll have that blasted thief in chains before the night is over!" Vilkas vowed. "Besides, with all the planning you've done, even Noctural herself wouldn't dream of being able to escape with those diamonds."
Vilkas was having what was these days a rare moment of compassion. The two were alike in a number of ways. Both were fiercely dedicated, no-nonsense men who had an intense passion for justice and carried a certain level of austerity most others found hard to swallow . So to see someone so like himself in such a predicament, having his career and honor threatened by a common criminal, touched a nerve in him. He had already decided that he was going to find the thief for Aldis, and when Vilkas decided something, he couldn't be swayed.
"It had better or I'll be the one put in chains. Let's hope that luck of your's is with us tonight, Companion."
Vilkas smiled. While he still regretted the choice he had made to accept the his blood-curse so many years ago, there were certain times- such as this one- when the curse had its uses. All he needed was a scent.
I don't know how this had ended up so long. O-O
What do you all think about Vilkas? Real stiff, ay? And what about Jay?
Next chapter, Vilkas meets his lady. ;)
Thanks for reading and please review!