4: About My Other Job…s
Sitting in the dining hall of Proudspire Manor, I tried to wrap my head around my friend's immense wealth as she ate stew quietly. "So how did you come into all this wealth?" I asked finally, making her look up in surprise.
"Helping out jarls, doing odd jobs," she said carefully.
"Odd jobs land you 25,000 septims in two months?" I asked, laughing from sheer skepticism.
"If you do the right jobs." She dabbed at her mouth with a napkin. Even my undead body felt unease at her words, for some reason.
The rest of the night she kept looking out her windows, restless, waiting.
"Want to cause some trouble?" she finally asked me.
"Uh, sure, I'm always up for an adventure," I answered, grabbing my cloak.
We left her home, the cool night air welcoming, beckoning. We nodded at guards, she gave a few beggars some coin, the usual. Until we walked past the door to Radiant Raiment. She stopped abruptly and leaned next to the door. I watched her pick the lock in a second and slip inside. What the hell as she up to, now?! I crouched and followed her inside, wondering what would happen if we were caught. But knowing Silva, we weren't going to get caught.
I looked around at a few bags of coin, some nice shoes on the shelves. Yet Silva wasn't interested in those in the least. She went straight up the steps, her lithe feet making no sound. I followed, my hand tight on my elven dagger. She stopped just before the bedroom of the two Altmer who owned the clothing shop. "You can wait here," she whispered as she entered the room.
I blinked and used my Vampire's Sight to clearly watch her sneak beside the bedside and expertly retrieve a jade necklace from a bedside dresser. She came back to me, pocketing the item. I had seen her sneak up and attack before, so I wasn't at all surprised at her level of stealth skill, yet up until this point, I have only seen Silva help others.
We left the business as casually as we could, though a guard did give us a funny look. She chatted to him about the threat of vampires (oh, the irony) before he moved on. "Guards in Skyrim are so dumb," she said with a hoarse laugh as we left Solitude and headed down to Solitude Stables. "In Cyrodil, if you even talk to a guard with a stolen item on you, they immediately arrest you! It's like they can sense it. It's pretty ridiculous."
"So, where are we going?" I asked her as we approached a carriage driver, though I had a feeling.
"To Riften," she told both he and I, confirming my feeling.
Through the Riften graveyard we trudged before we came to the entrance to the Thieves' Guild. "I should have expected this location," I said as we went down into the dank hole.
"This area is called the Cistern to the Ragged Flagon," she explained to me as we finished climbing down the ladder and I looked around at the beds, chests, murky water. "The Ragged Flagon is through this door over here; it's like a pub where some of the more prominent members hang out. I don't like to hang about too much, though."
"I almost forgot that you're a member of the Thieves' Guild," I said as we went through a door to the Ragged Flagon.
"I don't really steal for recreation that much. I do it to help spread word of the Guild, mostly."
"But only mostly."
She chuckled. "I also like to get some training in archery, sneaking, etc. I haven't obtained all of my skills by myself. At this point in my life, I have all of Skyrim to thank. For…everything. Even Alduin for saving my head from being chopped off in Helgen."
There were a handful of people in the Ragged Flagon, and all of them looked straight at us, making me feel very nervous. "I'll wait here," I said, hiding my eyes from the prying ones of the thieves. Silva walked over and gave a red-haired man a big hug and he kissed her cheek, making me feel a pang of…feelings. She chatted with a blonde woman, and then traded things with a Redguard woman. She proudly handed the stolen necklace to a bald man before turning back to me. "All done for the week," she said as we made our way back into the Cistern.
The sun was rising, which compelled her, much to my chagrin, to decide that a walk to Falkreath hold was in order. ("Can't we just take a damn carriage?" I had groaned while children stared at me and my sizzling skin, but she was so damn adamant about walking.) I wondered why Falkreath of all places, but even if I asked, she would not have answered me.
"Do you not like my thieving?" she asked me as she cut up an apple and ate it in jagged chunks as we headed west.
"I don't mind it, I guess," I answered truthfully. "But I see why you acquired so much money so quickly!"
"Heh, yeah. I just don't want you to feel uncomfortable accompanying me."
"I'm a vampire; you should be the one feeling uncomfortable."
"I don't think being a vampire should mean anything bad," she said. "It just means you bite some necks every so often. That's not scary or bad to me."
"You might be the only non-vampire in all of Tamriel who feels that way."
"Zu'u gein wo krii," she muttered, making me look at her.
"Say something?" I asked.
"No, no," she said before clearing her throat. She caught my astonished gaze and just shook her head. I closed my mouth, figuring my next question would cause her to feign deafness or change the subject again anyway.
We reached the city of Falkreath as clouds covered the sun, much to the delight of my frying skin. I slid my hood back as rain lightly came down upon the area. I looked around at the tiny town. Such a pathetic city for a boring area, really. She stood under the cover of the overhang on the porch of Gray Pine Goods and took a note out of her pocket. I sat on a wooden chair and sipped at a bottle of human blood, enjoying the rainy weather best I could. She looked over the small note for almost a half hour. Was there some secret novel on the paper? "Just going to read that all day?" I asked her. "This isn't exactly the most scenic place in Skyrim."
"I have business here," she stated flatly. "So we're staying here until I finish said business. Whiterun is maybe a half day north if you prefer elsewhere." I frowned at her, wondering about this change in attitude. "But I'd prefer you with me," she added quietly after a moment's thought.
"How lucky I am," I chided as I stood up and made my way to Dead Man's Drink to get out of the rain and cold.
I enjoyed a warm mug of mead for the remaining hours of daylight. I wondered if Silva had left, but I knew she wasn't going to leave unless she had finished her "business", whatever that was, and she was likely to seek me out afterwards. I looked out the window and saw that it was dark. I finished my drink and went outside to find her. The air was crisp and cool from the day's rain. I was not shocked in the least to see her still standing on the porch of Gray Pine Goods, looking patient as ever. She smiled when I neared and opened her eyes to look at me. "Glad you're here, I'll need a boost from you," she said, looking mischievous and excited. (Never a good thing, I later learned…)
"Like a literal boost?" I asked, trying to figure out where this was going.
"Yes, quite literal. I need help onto this roof."
She stepped onto my hand with one foot and I hoisted her thin frame up onto the roof. She placed her Nightingale Bow onto the roof first before pulling herself up next to it. She had her bow out? This wasn't going to end well for someone. I've witnessed Silva take down frost giants with that thing with amazing speed. All head shots. I stepped away from the store and into the shadows of some tall pines. I wasn't going to compromise her position. I mean, she was on a roof, at night, with a bow in hand. She obviously needed some space and had no intentions of being seen. On the roof she silently slipped into her Nightingale armor, I used my Vampire's Sight to see her, but even then it was difficult to make her out; she blended into the night so easily.
At this point I figured she was about to kill someone. But who? And why? She crouched on the roof for a few moments before setting a knee down to properly blance herself on the slanted roof. I craned my neck to see a beggar making his way down the road toward us. Surely he wasn't the target? I looked to Silva and saw her bow drawn. Apparently he was. I watched her chest rise, her hand moved, and the arrow sailed through the air as she exhaled. The ebony arrow pierced the man's skull and his body leapt into the air from shock damage before following onto itself in a pile. A patrolling guard ran forth to the body, then searched around for the murderer. I stepped behind a tree and glanced at the roof; I couldn't see her at all. Maybe she drank an invisibility potion? Or jumped off and ran?
The guard gave up searching after a short while and went back to patrolling. I guess there's not much else to do once the person is already killed and the assailant presumably got away. I noticed movement on the roof and saw Silva slowly stand from a lying down position. Clever woman. I dashed across the road and met her behind the store as she climbed down from the roof. I followed her as she went to the body and snatched her arrow from his head before poking his pockets for any septims. "Do you mind spending the night here?" she asked me.
"I hope you don't mean the street," I said dryly, rewarded from a chuckle from her.
In the dim candlelight of our room in Dead Man's Drink, I lay on the bed and watched Silva run a wet rag over her nude body. No matter how much dirt and blood was washed off, nothing could permeate the thick layer of stress and tension that had a constant hold over her frame. "The Dark Brotherhood," I said with a sigh. "How didn't I see that one coming?" She was an assassin. A highly trained and experienced one, too. Obviously. It made much more sense. I only knew so much about the Dark Brotherhood, but what I knew helped me further piece together the background of the Dovahkiin. She sliced through the air so fast with two swords, and she killed without a hint of emotion on her face, the same face that showed so much compassion and care otherwise. But that's the point of being an assassin, wasn't it? To be a cold-blooded killer only half of the time, else every hold would have a bounty on their head.
"Does it bother you?" she asked softly. "What I do, that is?"
"You're unbelievable, do you know that?" I shook my head at her.
"What do you mean?"
"You're standing across from a vampire, one of the most feared creatures in all of Skyrim. I also happen to be one of the oldest…and yet you ask me if I'm bothered that you're an assassin and a thief?"
"You're still a person. With feelings and opinions. And it's not like you kill for your food. You, personally that is, drink from humans without killing them and from bottles. And even if you didn't, you kill to live, to survive, to eat. I kill…" She slipped on her undergarments and then some clothes.
"For what?" I pressed. "For fun?"
"Sometimes it's fun. It's not to survive, that's for sure."
"Sometimes we all kill to survive."
"Dark Brotherhood contracts aren't to survive. You accept it to take that person out for the satisfaction of another."
"I'm sure it's been a source of income and connections. For the Dovahkiin, that sounds rather important." She smiled at me sadly and shook her head in disagreement, but said no more. That part of the conversation was over.
"To answer your question," I went on, "no, it doesn't bother me. Though you can warn me from time to time."
"Well I wanted your help getting on the roof first, just in case you didn't like it."
"I'm sure you could have found another way up onto that roof," I scoffed.
"Maybe, but using you was easier."
She grinned at me before blowing out the candle. Though the physical candle flame was out, a new flame was lit inside me, a flame of excitement fed by curiosity of what was to come for me now that I was being exposed to the lifestyle of Silva.